Summary:
Zip code 29063 in Irmo, SC is home to 7 elementary schools serving approximately 3,167 students, with six traditional public schools (PK-5) under the Lexington 05 district and one charter school, GREEN Charter School Midlands, serving grades K-8 under the School Public Charter School District.
This is a high-performing cluster of schools, with four of the seven ranking in the top 25% of all South Carolina elementary schools. Ballentine Elementary is the standout, ranking 76th statewide (88th percentile) with the highest test scores, including 87.5% ELA proficiency in 3rd grade, and the lowest chronic absenteeism among traditional schools at 10.5%. River Springs Elementary is a consistent top performer (80th percentile) with the best attendance rate in the area at just 6.8%. Oak Pointe Elementary and H.E. Corley Elementary also earn 4-star ratings, with H.E. Corley showing the most improvement, jumping 60 spots in rankings thanks to a 16.2-point gain in 3rd grade math. Irmo Elementary is a solid 3-star option, while Dutch Fork Elementary and GREEN Charter are the weakest performers, ranking in the bottom 30% statewide.
Key takeaways for parents: attendance strongly correlates with achievement—the two lowest-performing schools have the highest chronic absenteeism (18.4% and 22.1%), while top performers have rates below 11%. Math proficiency consistently drops dramatically from 3rd to 5th grade across nearly all schools (a 20-30 point decline), suggesting a need for upper-elementary math support, while ELA scores remain more stable. Notably, spending does not predict success: Dutch Fork spends the second-most per student ($18,586) yet performs worst academically, while Ballentine spends the least among traditional schools ($16,078) and achieves the best results. GREEN Charter is an outlier with much lower spending ($11,689) and highly inconsistent scores, though it did improve its ranking year-over-year.
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