Belton Middle, Belton SC - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Belton Middle

Belton Middle serves sixth through eighth grade as a regular public school in the Anderson 02 district. It is the only middle school in the town of Belton, a small community with a compact historic core that grew up around a railroad junction and later textile mills. The town square, the refurbished train depot, and the annual tennis championships give Belton a distinct civic identity, but the school itself sits within a district that also stretches toward Honea Path. The town has seen population shifts over decades, with a modest rebound in the most recent census, and the housing market in the area is priced below the national average, making it a more affordable corner of Anderson County.

The student body at Belton Middle is predominantly white, with a substantial share of Black and Hispanic students. More than two-thirds of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate that places the school in a higher-need context. Enrollment is concentrated fairly evenly across the three middle grades, each around the same size, so no single grade overwhelms the building. The school is not a charter or magnet, and its type is listed as regular, meaning it follows the standard district curriculum.

On state assessments, Belton Middle shows a varied picture that parents will want to examine by grade and subject. In sixth grade, English language arts and science proficiency rates are solidly above the midpoint, with roughly two-thirds of students meeting the state’s bar in ELA and nearly that many in science. Math proficiency in sixth grade is also relatively strong, around the same level. But by seventh grade, math proficiency drops to about a third of students, and in eighth grade it falls further to just above one in five. ELA holds up better, with seventh and eighth grade proficiency rates in the mid-50s and low-50s respectively. Science is tested only in sixth grade at this school, so there is no later data to compare. Social studies results are available only from an earlier year under a different test and should be treated as a separate reference point. The overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places Belton Middle in the bottom quartile among the seven districts in Anderson County, though that comparison includes only five schools with reported data, so the field is not large.

The drop in math performance as students move through the grades is the most notable pattern. A parent considering this school might want to ask what math supports or interventions are available for seventh and eighth graders, and whether the school tracks students into different course levels. The state testing data does not show subgroup breakdowns, so it is not possible to see how performance varies among demographic groups without asking the school directly.

No information on programs such as electives, arts, athletics, or advanced coursework appeared in the data. The district brief turned up little in the way of recent changes to curriculum, boundaries, or funding that would affect a family’s decision. The school environment section, which would typically cover discipline, staffing, and attendance, was also empty. Those are real gaps. A family would need to visit or contact the school to learn about class sizes, teacher experience, extracurricular offerings, and the day-to-day climate.

Belton Middle sits in a district that includes several elementary schools and one high school shared with Honea Path. The town itself is a quiet, small-town setting with a library, an arts center, and a park system, but no public transit. For a family looking for an affordable, standard public middle school in a community with a recognizable downtown and a modest pace of growth, Belton Middle fits that description. The academic data suggests that while sixth graders generally start on solid footing, especially in reading and science, the school has not yet been able to sustain that level in math through the middle years, and a parent would do well to inquire about how the school addresses that slide.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 661%

School 61% · District 64% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 734%

School 34% · District 40% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 822%

School 22% · District 29% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 666%

School 66% · District 67% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 756%

School 56% · District 63% · ▼ 6 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 57% · ▼ 4 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Science

Grade 659%

School 59% · District 61% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 15 pts above state median · even with county median

Social studies

Grade 769%

School 69% · District 65% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

This schoolAnderson 02, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 6Lower-income62%Higher-income82%21 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income53%Higher-income66%13 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income42%Higher-income79%37 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income54%Higher-income85%31 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income30%Higher-income45%16 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income14%Higher-income42%28 pp gap