Loris Middle, Loris SC - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Loris Middle

Loris Middle sits in the northern part of Horry County, serving grades six through eight for a student body that is close to evenly split between white students and Black students, with a smaller but notable share of Hispanic students and students who identify as two or more races. The school is a regular public middle school, not a magnet or charter, and it is part of the Horry 01 district. Every single enrolled student qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a detail that tells a parent a good deal about the economic context families in this attendance zone are navigating.

State testing results from the most recent school year offer a clear picture of where academic performance stands. In English language arts, proficiency rates hover in the high thirties and low forties depending on the grade, with the eighth-grade cohort reaching into the low forties. That means a substantial share of students are meeting state benchmarks in reading and writing, though a majority are not. Math proficiency is markedly lower across all three grades, falling in the teens and mid-twenties. Science results for sixth grade land near the low thirties. The social studies data is from several years ago and used a different assessment, so it provides no current read on that subject. A parent looking at these numbers will see a school where literacy is the relative strength and math is a clear area where the school is working from a lower base. The data covers only a single year, so trend information is not available, making it hard to tell whether these results represent a stable pattern or a point in flux.

The school is a regular public middle school, so it does not serve high school grades, and there is no graduation rate to report. Information on special education identification rates, English learner enrollment, chronic absenteeism, discipline, and staffing levels was not available in the data. A parent who wants to understand the support structures for students with disabilities or for English learners, or who wants a sense of school climate and discipline patterns, would need to ask the school or district directly for those figures.

Loris itself is a small incorporated city with a rural small-town character, founded as a railroad town and still organized around a compact downtown along Main Street. The annual Loris Bog-Off Festival draws the community downtown, and the public library, city hall, and a parks department are the main civic anchors. The population has grown modestly in recent decades, but the pace is gradual compared to the faster growth in the Myrtle Beach area to the south. Housing values in the zip code are below the statewide benchmark, and the estimated monthly mortgage on a typical home is notably lower than the national figure, which may be relevant for a family weighing affordability against other options in the region.

The district brief turned up little in the way of recent structural changes or initiatives that would alter a family’s day-to-day experience at the middle school level, so the district context is essentially stable on paper. The comparison data that would place Loris Middle relative to other schools in Horry County was too thin to report, since the county contains only one school district at this level of analysis, making a within-county comparison unworkable. A parent looking for a benchmark would need to look at schools in neighboring counties or at statewide averages.

For a family considering Loris Middle, the academic picture is mixed: English language arts results give a moderate foundation, while math and science proficiency rates are lower, and the school is serving a student population where economic need is universal. The setting is a slow-growing small town with affordable housing and a downtown that still functions as a community gathering place. A parent should follow up on the missing data around special programs and school climate to get a fuller sense of whether the school’s supports match their child’s needs.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 623%

School 23% · District 47% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 714%

School 14% · District 41% · ▼ 26 pts below district

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

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 41% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 58% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Grade 738%

School 38% · District 62% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 843%

School 43% · District 60% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Science

Grade 631%

School 31% · District 55% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 747%

School 47% · District 72% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

This schoolHorry 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 6Lower-income36%Higher-income49%12 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income34%Higher-income59%26 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income41%Higher-income50%9 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income20%Higher-income38%18 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income12%Higher-income27%15 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income20%Higher-income40%20 pp gap