Summary:
Zip code 29111 is served by a single elementary school, Walker-Gamble Elementary, which educates 547 students in grades PK through 5th grade within the Clarendon 06 school district.
Walker-Gamble Elementary stands out as a high-performing school within its district, consistently outperforming Clarendon 06 by significant margins across all subjects and grade levels. In the most recent school year, the school's proficiency rates in English Language Arts ranged from 62.7% in 3rd grade to 71.9% in 5th grade, while math proficiency ranged from 60.7% in 5th grade to 64.5% in 4th grade. The school also exceeds state averages in every subject, with 4th-grade science proficiency at 57.9% compared to the state's 51.6%. The largest gap between the school and its district appears in 5th-grade math, where the school leads by more than 22 percentage points. However, the school's state ranking has slipped over the past three years, dropping from the 83rd percentile (4 stars) in 2023-2024 to the 69th percentile (3 stars) in 2025-2026, currently ranking 200th out of 649 elementary schools in South Carolina.
Parents should note that the school spends a substantial $17,563 per student, reflecting the costs of operating in a small, rural district, and maintains a reasonable student-teacher ratio of 16:1. Chronic absenteeism stands at 22.8%, which is slightly above the state average of 22.3% but notably better than the district's 29.4%. A recent year-over-year decline in proficiency across several grades and subjects—such as 3rd-grade math dropping from 78% to 62.6%—is worth monitoring, as is the school's relative strength in mathematics compared to its ELA performance. While the school is clearly a beacon within its district, the downward ranking trend suggests that other schools across the state are improving at a faster pace, making continued focus on academic growth essential.
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