Summary:
Zip code 29817 is home to just one elementary school, Macedonia Elementary-Middle, a combined PK-8 campus serving 349 students in the Barnwell district, which itself holds a 1-star rating and ranks 65th out of 75 districts in South Carolina.
As the only school in the area, Macedonia Elementary-Middle stands out for its critically low performance, ranking 643rd out of 649 elementary schools statewide (1st percentile). The school falls below both district and state averages in every subject and grade level tested. In English Language Arts, proficiency rates range from 20% in 5th grade to 36.7% in 4th grade, compared to state averages of 63.6% and 65.4% respectively. Mathematics is a particular area of concern, with proficiency rates dropping from 19.5% in 3rd grade to a staggering 0% in 5th grade—meaning not a single 5th grader met state math standards. Even in the middle school grades (6th-8th), math proficiency remains critically low at 11-12%, and 6th-grade science proficiency sits at just 8.3% versus the state's 51.9%.
The most alarming finding is the 0% proficiency in 5th-grade math, which signals a severe instructional breakdown at that grade level. The school also shows a clear downward trend in math as students progress, suggesting deficits are compounding rather than being remediated. Notably, the school lags far behind its own district—for example, in 5th-grade math, the district achieves 29.7% proficiency while the school achieves 0%, a nearly 30-point gap. This indicates the challenges are unique to this campus rather than systemic across the district. For parents considering this area, the data paints a picture of a school in crisis, particularly in mathematics, where scores are often less than half the state average. Comprehensive intervention and targeted support are urgently needed to address these persistent academic shortfalls.
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