Summary:
The 29492 zip code is home to a single standout middle school, Philip Simmons Middle School, which has consistently ranked in the top 100-150 middle schools in South Carolina's Berkeley 01 district over the past three school years.
Philip Simmons Middle School's performance on state assessments is notably higher than the district and state averages across multiple subjects and grade levels. For example, in 2024-2025, 73.4% of 5th graders were proficient or better in ELA, compared to 60.9% for the district and 62.5% statewide. The school's proficiency rates in Algebra 1/Mathematics for the Technologies 2 are exceptionally high, reaching 100% in 2024-2025 compared to 65.63% for the district and 73.95% statewide.
Despite having a relatively high percentage of economically disadvantaged students, as indicated by a free/reduced lunch rate of 47.58% in 2023-2024, Philip Simmons Middle School's academic performance remains exceptional. The school's above-average spending per student ($12,590 in 2023-2024) and favorable student-teacher ratio (15.4 to 1 in 2023-2024) may be contributing factors to its strong academic outcomes, even with a chronic absenteeism rate of 22.5% in 2023-2024, which is higher than the state average but not alarmingly so.
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