Summary:
Zip code 29133 (Rowesville, SC) is home to just one high school, Bethune-Bowman Middle/High, a small rural school serving grades 6-12 with 349 students in the Orangeburg district.
For parents considering this area, the most important takeaway is that Bethune-Bowman Middle/High is a school of stark contrasts. On the positive side, the school posts a strong 92.2% graduation rate—well above both the district (80.4%) and state (86.7%)—and a low 1.9% dropout rate. It also shines in Algebra 1, where 79.59% of students are proficient, actually beating the state average of 73.95%. This is the only subject where the school outperforms the state, suggesting a possible strength in that specific program. However, these bright spots are offset by significant struggles elsewhere. U.S. History proficiency sits at just 11.76%, a staggering 50.81 points below the state average, and early-grade subjects like 6th-grade Science (11.5%) and 6th-grade ELA (23.1%) also lag far behind. The school's overall state ranking reflects this, placing it in the bottom 2% of South Carolina schools for the 2025-2026 school year.
Despite the academic challenges, the school maintains a favorable 14:1 student-teacher ratio and spends a substantial $15,558 per student. Chronic absenteeism (23.2%) is slightly above the state average but notably better than the district's 30.9%. There are also signs of progress in middle school math, with 7th-grade proficiency jumping from 4% to 21.4% year-over-year. Ultimately, this is a school that successfully keeps students on track to graduate but struggles to bring most academic subjects up to state standards. Parents should weigh the strong graduation outcomes and Algebra 1 success against the significant gaps in history, science, and early-grade reading when evaluating this school.
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