Summary:
Zip code 29160 in Swansea, SC is served by 5 schools—3 elementary schools, 1 high school, and 1 alternative freshman academy—spanning the Lexington 04 and Calhoun 01 districts, with a total enrollment of about 2,528 students and no standalone middle school.
For parents, the standout story is Swansea High Freshman Academy, which posted an extraordinary 97.43% proficiency rate in Algebra 1—26 points above the district average and 23.5 points above the state. This suggests the freshman academy model is highly effective for math, especially compared to Swansea High, where Algebra 1 proficiency is 76.16% (still above the state’s 64.58%). However, Swansea High struggles in U.S. History (39.28% proficiency, 23 points below state) and English 1 (46.51%), though English 2 (78.25%) is close to the state average. The elementary schools—Sandhills Primary (grades 1-2) and Sandhills Elementary (grades 3-4)—show math and ELA scores roughly 20 points below state averages, while Sandy Run School (PK-8) is inconsistent: 7th grade math exceeds the state, but 4th grade math is 32.7 points below.
The most pressing concern is chronic absenteeism, which exceeds the state rate (22.3%) at every school—Swansea High hits 37.5%, and Sandhills Primary is at 30.9%. This likely drives many academic struggles. Positively, Swansea High’s graduation rate (86.8%) matches the state, and its dropout rate (0.9%) is less than half the state average. Also encouraging: Algebra 1 scores at Swansea High improved by nearly 11 points year-over-year. Sandy Run spends the most per student ($16,927) but ranks in the bottom 16th percentile statewide, while Sandhills Primary spends the least ($13,497) with no testing data yet. Overall, parents should expect strong math intervention at the Freshman Academy, but should watch for attendance issues and the U.S. History gap at the high school level.
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