Summary:
In zip code 29536, located in Dillon, SC, there are two elementary schools serving grades PK-5 within the Dillon 04 school district, which together educate 1,376 students in a district ranked in the 8th percentile statewide.
For parents comparing the two schools, Dillon Elementary is the much larger school with 1,025 students in grades PK-3, while Gordon Elementary serves 351 students in grades 4-5. Gordon Elementary has a more favorable student-teacher ratio of 15.2:1 compared to Dillon Elementary's 18.3:1, meaning smaller class sizes at the upper elementary level. However, academic proficiency tells a concerning story. In 3rd grade at Dillon Elementary, ELA proficiency is 42.4% and math is 32.4%. By 4th grade at Gordon Elementary, ELA rises slightly to 45.4%, but math drops to 27.8%. By 5th grade, both subjects decline further to 37.6% in ELA and just 22.0% in math. This shows a clear pattern where students fall further behind as they progress through elementary school, particularly in math, which lags ELA by roughly 15-18 percentage points at every grade level.
One bright spot is that Gordon Elementary showed a strong 9.5 percentage point improvement in 4th-grade ELA from the previous year, jumping from 35.9% to 45.4%. However, significant challenges remain. Gordon Elementary reports a chronic absenteeism rate of 33.4%, which is 11 points above the state average, and spends $13,084 per student—a high figure that does not translate into strong results, as the school holds only a 7th percentile state ranking. The school did earn a "1-star" rating in 2023-2024, its best recent distinction. For parents, this data suggests that while class sizes are reasonable and spending is substantial, the combination of high absenteeism and declining proficiency across grade levels points to systemic challenges that likely require community-wide support beyond just classroom instruction.
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