Kelly Miller Elementary, Winnsboro SC

Original Research by School Decision on Kelly Miller Elementary

Kelly Miller Elementary sits in Winnsboro, a small historic town that serves as the county seat of Fairfield County and lies within the Columbia metropolitan area. The town has a declining population and a low median household income with a high poverty rate, characteristics that shape the context for this school. The town’s downtown core includes sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a museum, a library, and a town clock billed as the oldest continuously running clock in the country. Historically, textile mills were a major employer; one later became a tire-manufacturing plant. The school itself is a regular public school serving students from prekindergarten through sixth grade.

Kelly Miller Elementary is the only elementary school in the Fairfield 01 district, and the district has only one school overall for this grade band, so comparisons to other local districts are not possible based on the data available. Every student enrolled qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a reflection of the community’s economic makeup. The student body is predominantly African American, with a small number of white students and a modest Hispanic presence.

Academic performance on South Carolina’s state assessments varies by grade and subject. In mathematics, the share of students scoring proficient or above was just over a third in third grade, approached a little over two-fifths in fifth grade, and fell below a quarter in sixth grade. In English language arts, the picture is mixed: third graders reached the halfway mark, fifth graders scored above that, and sixth graders dropped to just above two-fifths. Results for fourth grade in both math and ELA are suppressed, meaning the school did not report them publicly, and this also applies to fourth-grade science and fifth-grade social studies. Sixth-grade science proficiency was low, below a quarter. A parent may want to ask the school directly about those suppressed results and about how the school supports student progress across grade levels.

The school serves a relatively small enrollment for its grade band, with students spread across prekindergarten through sixth grade. Data on special education and English learner populations is missing, as are figures on chronic absenteeism and discipline. The district’s publicly available information showed no recent major changes, so the district context appears stable. The town’s population decline and limited economic growth suggest that the school serves a community facing demographic and economic headwinds, but the school itself offers the primary public elementary option for families in the Winnsboro area through the end of sixth grade.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 336%

School 36% · District 47% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 47% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 624%

School 24% · District 22% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 350%

School 50% · District 49% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 54% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 643%

School 43% · District 49% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median

Science

Grade 624%

School 24% · District 30% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median

This schoolFairfield 01, 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.