The top reported proficiency rate is 88% in Social studies. The lowest is 35% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Latta Elementary
Latta Elementary serves students from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade in the Dillon 03 school district, housed on Viking Drive in the small rural town of Latta, South Carolina. This is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. The enrollment is large for an elementary building serving only these early grades. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
The student body is predominantly white, with a Black population also making up a meaningful share of the enrollment. Hispanic students, students identifying as two or more races, American Indian or Alaska Native students, Asian students, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students each represent smaller shares. The school does not serve grades that would produce a graduation rate, as its highest grade is fourth.
State testing results from the 2024-25 school year, using South Carolina's SC Ready assessments, show a pattern in which proficiency rates climb as students advance through the grades. In third-grade math, the share of students scoring at the proficient level or above is below a majority. By fourth grade, that share approaches the midpoint, and by fifth grade it crests into a majority. In English language arts, the same upward trajectory appears: third-grade proficiency sits just above half, fourth grade moves higher, and fifth grade reaches a stronger level. Science is tested only in fourth grade, and the proficiency rate there is lower, with just over a third of students meeting the bar. One set of older social studies results from the 2016-17 school year, using a different assessment with a different proficiency standard, shows a high pass rate; that data is too old to reflect current performance and used different criteria, so it offers little for a present-day read.
When compared to the other districts in Dillon County, Latta Elementary's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades lands in the top quartile among the small number of districts in the county. That is a relative strength within a local context. The data is thin for year-over-year trend analysis: the state cut scores for ELA changed recently, and the school has only a single year of results using the current assessment framework, so there is no clean trend line to describe.
Housing in the area is affordable relative to state and national benchmarks. The typical home value in the town's zip code is well below the South Carolina median. The town itself has a historic Main Street with a compact downtown, a Carnegie library still in use, and a small museum. Latta's population has been declining over recent years, a trend that predates the school's current enrollment picture. No major new housing or commercial developments surfaced in available research. No recent parent-relevant changes at the district level, such as bond measures, boundary shifts, or curriculum overhauls, were found in the publicly available record.
For a family considering Latta Elementary, the academic picture is mixed. The school's relative standing within Dillon County is favorable, and many students in the upper elementary grades are reaching proficiency in reading and math. The lower proficiency in science is a soft spot a parent may want to ask the school more about, especially given that the assessment has changed. The school's size is large for a PK-4 building, which may influence class sizes and the feel of the hallways. The town offers a quiet rural setting with a historic core, modest housing costs, and limited commercial growth, so the overall environment is stable but not expanding. The absence of demographic data on students with disabilities and English learners is a gap; a parent who needs information on those supports would want to contact the school directly.
See more original research from School Decision →