Waccamaw Intermediate, Pawleys Island SC

Original Research by School Decision on Waccamaw Intermediate

Waccamaw Intermediate serves students in fourth through sixth grade in the Georgetown 01 school district, drawing from the Pawleys Island area and the surrounding mainland stretch of Georgetown County. Pawleys Island itself is a tiny barrier island resort community that bans commercial buildings, leaving the commercial district on the mainland along US Route 17. The island’s character is deliberately quiet and residential, known for a laid-back, “shoeless” beach lifestyle. The school sits off the island, on the mainland side, serving a population that includes both the island’s historic cottages and the highway-adjacent commercial strip.

The school’s academic picture is one of solid, consistent performance. On the state’s SC Ready assessments, the share of students scoring at proficient or above was strong in English language arts across all three grades, with roughly four out of five students meeting that mark. Math proficiency was also clearly above the midpoint, though slightly lower than ELA. Science results were mixed: fourth-grade science proficiency was noticeably lower, while sixth-grade science rebounded to a level comparable to the school’s overall math performance. Social studies data comes from an older assessment year, so a parent may want to ask the school how current instruction lines up with the newer science and social studies standards the state has adopted.

Because the school’s grade band ends at sixth grade, there is no graduation rate to review, and state testing is not administered in grades below third, so earlier-grade results are not a factor here. The available data covers only the most recent school year, so trends cannot be assessed yet. The district recently converted an elementary school into a Digital Immersion School, a signal that Georgetown 01 is investing in technology-focused pedagogy, but how that affects Waccamaw Intermediate is not specified in public sources.

The student body is roughly three-quarters white, with a Black enrollment of close to one-fifth and a smaller Hispanic population. A notable share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a bit higher than what the area’s high housing costs might suggest. The local home values are well above the state and national benchmarks, making Pawleys Island an expensive place to buy. Rents are also elevated. That context means some families in the school community may be in relatively higher-cost housing while others are in more modest circumstances; the economic mix is real.

The school is a regular public school with no charter or magnet status, and there is no publicly reported information on whether it receives Title I funding. Civil rights data such as discipline rates, chronic absenteeism, and special education or English learner counts are absent from the records we have. That is a gap a parent may want to follow up on with the school directly, as these factors can shape day-to-day experience.

The wider Georgetown County district comparison was not possible because the available comparison set had only one school at this level in the county peer group, so no relative positioning is given. The district itself serves a coastal area that includes both resort communities and more rural inland stretches, and Waccamaw Intermediate sits in the higher-cost, more tourism-oriented part of the county.

For a family looking at Waccamaw Intermediate, the classroom picture is one of reliably strong English and math outcomes, with science showing a wider range by grade. The community around it is quiet, expensive, and beach-oriented, with no downtown or nightlife on the island itself. The school appears to serve a mix of local families, including those in the mainland commercial corridor and those in the historic island cottages. The missing data on discipline, attendance, and support services means a parent should ask those questions of the school to get a full picture of the student experience.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 471%

School 71% · District 48% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median

Grade 577%

School 77% · District 44% · ▲ 33 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median

Grade 668%

School 68% · District 34% · ▲ 35 pts above district

▲ 34 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 479%

School 79% · District 61% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median

Grade 582%

School 82% · District 58% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median

Grade 681%

School 81% · District 49% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median

Science

Grade 460%

School 60% · District 38% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 676%

School 76% · District 43% · ▲ 33 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 584%

School 84% · District 61% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median

This schoolGeorgetown 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income63%Higher-income89%26 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income68%Higher-income93%25 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income66%Higher-income92%26 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income57%Higher-income80%23 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income57%Higher-income91%33 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income56%Higher-income78%22 pp gap