Summary:
Zip code 29045 (Elgin, South Carolina) is home to exactly one middle school, Leslie M. Stover Middle, which serves grades 6-8 with an enrollment of 662 students as part of the Kershaw 01 school district.
For parents considering this area, Leslie M. Stover Middle presents a mixed but improving picture. The school's most impressive achievement is a perfect 100% proficiency rate on the Algebra 1 EOCEP exam, which is more than 35 points above both the district (64.63%) and state (73.95%) averages. This likely reflects a small, highly-selected group of advanced 8th graders, but it demonstrates the school's advanced math pathway is exceptionally strong. The school also shows notable strengths in 6th grade science (54% proficiency, exceeding state average) and 8th grade ELA (57% proficiency, near state average). However, mathematics proficiency lags significantly behind state averages across all grade levels, with 7th grade math being the most concerning at just 27.2% proficiency compared to the state's 41.8% — a 14.6-point gap. Chronic absenteeism affects 20% of students, which is slightly better than district and state averages but still represents one in five students missing significant school time.
The most encouraging news is the dramatic year-over-year improvement in math and science. Between 2024-25 and 2025-26, 6th grade math jumped an incredible 15.6 points (from 21.2% to 36.8%), 8th grade math improved by 13.1 points (from 22.1% to 35.2%), and 6th grade science rose by 8.4 points. These gains suggest recent instructional interventions are working, even though scores still trail state averages. The school has consistently earned 2 stars and ranked in the 44-49th percentile over the past three years, indicating stability but also room for growth. With a 15:1 student-teacher ratio and $12,121 spent per student, resources appear adequate, making the math gap more likely an instructional or curricular issue. If the current improvement trends continue, this school could see its ranking rise significantly in the coming years.
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