Johnsonville Middle, Johnsonville SC

Original Research by School Decision on Johnsonville Middle

Johnsonville Middle, a regular public school in Florence County School District 5, serves grades six through eight. It is a school with a student body that is predominantly white, with a substantial Black minority and smaller shares of Hispanic and multiracial students. Every single student at the school qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a fact that aligns with the economic context of the rural small town it serves. The school’s location in Johnsonville, a place whose identity is tied to Revolutionary War history and the Lynches River, is a low-density setting where the civic core is a single main street and the school campus is separated from that downtown. District-wide information about recent changes was not available, so it is not possible to say whether the district is undergoing any significant shifts.

The academic picture at Johnsonville Middle is mixed, and a parent will want to look at the grade-level results closely. In English language arts, the school’s performance is stronger than in math. The strongest showing is in seventh grade, where a solid majority of students met the state’s proficiency standard. Eighth grade also saw a majority of students scoring proficient. Sixth grade was lower, with fewer than half reaching that bar. In math, the story is more challenging. Across all three grades, proficiency rates were markedly lower, with the eighth-grade rate being the highest of the three but still below half. Sixth and seventh graders were in the same general range. Science results, which were reported only for sixth grade, placed about half of students at the proficient level. A parent should be aware that the school’s overall academic proficiency, when averaged across subjects and grades, sits above the midpoint relative to the other districts in Florence County. That is a modest strength in this local context, but the gap between language arts and math performance is wide enough that a family considering the school would want to understand how the school supports students who struggle in math.

There is no data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, or staffing ratios, which are important pieces of the full picture. Without that information, it is not possible to describe the day-to-day environment inside the school. The school also does not appear to offer information on course access or programs, so there is no way to assess the breadth of the curriculum or whether advanced or elective courses are available. The district operates in a small, rural footprint covering about the area of the town and its surroundings, and Johnsonville itself has a stable, slow-growth character. The town’s housing values, while specific figures are not stated here, are notably lower than the state average, and the area is affordable relative to national benchmarks. For a family that values a small-town, rural context with a school where the entire student body qualifies for meal assistance, Johnsonville Middle is the local public middle school. For a family wanting to understand the school’s academic profile, the clear takeaway is that language arts is a relative bright spot, math is an area where the school is below the mark, and many of the environmental and program indicators that might inform a decision are simply missing from the available record.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 36%

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 737%

School 37% · District 37%

▲ 10 pts above state median

Grade 834%

School 34% · District 34%

▲ 8 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 44%

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 764%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 8 pts above state median

Grade 854%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 1 pts above state median

Science

Grade 649%

School 49% · District 49%

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 59% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 767%

School 67% · District 67%

▲ 2 pts above state median

This schoolFlorence 05, 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 5Lower-income36%Higher-income77%41 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income39%Higher-income65%26 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income58%Higher-income86%29 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income49%Higher-income63%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income28%Higher-income73%45 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income31%Higher-income57%25 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income29%Higher-income64%35 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income29%Higher-income43%14 pp gap