Summary:
Zip code 29536 in Dillon, SC, is served by four schools in the Dillon 04 school district, which ranks in the bottom 10% of districts statewide and enrolls roughly 2,800 students across elementary, middle, and high school levels.
For parents, the standout school in this area is Dillon Middle, which is the district's highest-ranked school (14th percentile) and the only one with a star rating. It also posted a perfect 100% proficiency rate on the Algebra 1 EOCEP exam, a remarkable anomaly given that only 16-17% of its 6th and 7th graders are proficient in math. In contrast, Dillon High is the district's lowest-ranked school (6th percentile) and has declined for three straight years, with a dropout rate nearly three times the state average. Among elementary schools, Gordon Elementary actually beats district averages in 4th-grade ELA and math, while Dillon Elementary shows 3rd-grade proficiency rates well below state levels in both subjects.
The most pressing issue across all schools is chronic absenteeism, which runs 50-100% higher than the state average—Dillon Middle leads with 44.5% of students chronically absent. Math proficiency is a systemic crisis, with middle school scores less than half the state average, and the district spends $12,443-$13,084 per student without moving the needle on outcomes. There are also notable transition drops between 3rd and 4th grade and again between 5th and 6th grade, suggesting students lose ground when changing schools. While Dillon High shows a puzzling 40-point gap between English 1 (32%) and English 2 (72%) proficiency, the overall picture is one of a district facing deep challenges that money alone hasn't solved.
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