Summary:
Zip code 29061 in Hopkins, South Carolina, is served by two middle schools—Southeast Middle and Hopkins Middle—both part of the Richland 01 district and serving grades 6-8 with nearly identical enrollments of 462 and 458 students, respectively.
Both schools rank in the bottom 13% of South Carolina middle schools, but they show different strengths. Southeast Middle stands out for its exceptional Algebra 1 performance—100% proficiency on the EOCEP exam, far exceeding the district (69.75%) and state (73.95%) averages—and its 6th grade science proficiency (41.9%) is the only subject-grade metric where either school beats the district average. Hopkins Middle counters with the strongest single subject score across both schools: 48% proficiency in 7th grade ELA, and it showed the largest year-over-year improvement anywhere, jumping from 13.1% to 27.2% in 6th grade math. However, math remains the critical weakness at both schools, with proficiency rates roughly half the state averages across all grades. Chronic absenteeism also diverges sharply: Southeast Middle matches the state average at 22.2%, while Hopkins Middle sits at 33.7%—51% higher than the state—likely contributing to its lower overall performance.
Despite similar outcomes and rankings, Southeast Middle spends $2,192 more per student ($22,241 vs. $20,049) than Hopkins Middle, raising questions about resource efficiency. Both schools have improved their state percentile rankings over three years, with Hopkins Middle showing the more consistent upward trend. For parents, the key takeaway is that while these schools face significant academic challenges, they offer genuine bright spots—particularly in advanced math and science—and the stark attendance gap between the two suggests school-level culture and interventions matter as much as funding.
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