Summary:
York 04 is a top-ranked South Carolina school district serving roughly 18,000 students across 20 schools—11 elementary, 6 middle, and 3 high schools—in the Fort Mill and Tega Cay area, and it ranks #1 out of 75 districts statewide with a 5-star rating.
Every school in this district outperforms state averages, but a few stand out. River Trail Elementary is the academic powerhouse, with ELA proficiency consistently above 90% and math scores among the district's best, while Kings Town Elementary is the rising star, jumping to #9 in the state and posting the highest 4th-grade math (92.5%) and ELA (94.5%) scores in the district. At the secondary level, Fort Mill High leads all high schools with a 97.6% graduation rate and near-perfect English 2 proficiency, while Gold Hill Middle excels in science and advanced math, achieving 99.99% proficiency on the Algebra 1 EOC. Among the three high schools, Catawba Ridge High School closely follows Fort Mill, while Nation Ford High trails in most metrics, particularly Algebra 1 (74.17% vs. the district's 90.08%).
Key patterns emerge across the district. Chronic absenteeism varies widely—from a low of 3.1% at Doby's Bridge Elementary to a high of 14.0% at Banks Trail Middle—and the schools with the lowest absenteeism are also the highest performers. A district-wide concern is the decline in 5th-grade math proficiency compared to 3rd grade, seen at schools like Sugar Creek Elementary (73.3% to 57.7%) and Fort Mill Elementary (63.5% to 51.9%). Interestingly, per-student spending doesn't predict success—Riverview Elementary spends the most ($16,907/student) but ranks in the bottom half, while Gold Hill Middle spends the least ($11,731/student) and is the district's top middle school. Overall, York 04 is a talent pipeline with a 95.8% graduation rate and near-zero dropout rates, making it one of South Carolina's premier educational systems.
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