Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 29851

In zip code 29851, there is exactly one middle school, Langley-Bath-Clearwater Middle, serving grades 6 through 8 with an enrollment of 476 students as part of the Aiken 01 school district.

For parents considering this area, the most important takeaway is that Langley-Bath-Clearwater Middle faces significant challenges, particularly in mathematics and student attendance. The school has earned a 1-star rating for three consecutive years and ranks in the bottom 20-29% of all middle schools in South Carolina. The most alarming statistic is the chronic absenteeism rate of 43.6% for the 2024-2025 school year, which is nearly double the district rate of 25.1% and the state rate of 22.3%. This means almost half of the students are chronically absent, which directly impacts learning outcomes. In math, only about 1 in 5 sixth and seventh graders are proficient, with proficiency rates roughly 20 percentage points below state averages. For example, 6th-grade math proficiency is just 20.2% compared to the state's 40.9%, and 7th-grade math proficiency is 19.9% versus the state's 41.8%.

There is a slight positive trend in English Language Arts, where the gap between the school and state averages narrows as students progress from 6th to 8th grade. In 6th grade, the ELA gap is -19.6 points, but by 8th grade it narrows to -9.6 points, suggesting the school's ELA instruction becomes more effective in later grades. The school spends a healthy $12,604 per student and maintains a reasonable student-teacher ratio of 16.4:1, yet performance remains low. This suggests that the high absenteeism rate is likely the most impactful factor, and interventions focused on improving attendance and community outreach may be more effective than academic-only solutions. The school is also significantly below its own district averages, indicating these challenges are specific to this school rather than the entire Aiken 01 district.