Wateree Elementary, Lugoff SC - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Wateree Elementary

Wateree Elementary serves students in prekindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Kershaw County School District, which is the only district in the county. The school is located in Lugoff, an unincorporated community about five miles southwest of Camden. Lugoff is a primarily residential census-designated place that has grown substantially in recent decades, and its car-dependent layout along highway corridors like US 1 and I-20 reflects its role as a commuter suburb within the Columbia metropolitan area. There is no traditional downtown; nearby Camden serves as the county seat and civic anchor for the region.

The school enrolls a sizable student body for an elementary school serving only PK through 5. The student population is majority white, with smaller shares of Black, Hispanic, and multiracial students, and a very small number of Asian and American Indian students. More than half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure that indicates a substantial share of families in this community work with moderate incomes. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the profile.

On state assessments, Wateree Elementary shows a pattern of solid performance in English language arts across grades three through five, with proficiency rates that are notably high in fifth grade. Math results are more mixed, with third grade showing a strong rate, fourth grade a softer one, and fifth grade returning to a solid level. Fourth-grade science results are a relative soft spot, with just under half of students meeting the proficiency bar. This is an area a parent may want to ask the school about, especially if science is a priority. Social studies data is available only from several years ago, before recent changes to assessments, so it is not directly comparable to current results and does not give a reliable picture of today's performance.

A few important caveats apply to the testing data. South Carolina changed the cut scores for English language arts and science in the most recent testing cycle, which means the current results cannot be directly compared to results from prior years. Only a single year of data was available for math and ELA, so there is no trend line to show whether performance is improving or declining. The school’s overall proficiency rate across all tested subjects and grades was computable, but because Kershaw County has only one district, no meaningful comparison to neighboring districts was possible.

The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. No information was available on discipline, attendance, staffing ratios, or course access. The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes such as boundary adjustments, program launches, or leadership transitions. The housing market in the area is moderately priced relative to the state and national benchmarks, and the area has seen steady home-value appreciation.

Wateree Elementary presents as a school where a majority of students perform well in reading, with math performance that varies by grade and a science result that families may want to understand better. The demographic makeup and economic context are typical of a growing suburban community near a mid-sized metro area. Because of the assessment cut-score changes, this year’s results are a new baseline, and interested parents will have to watch next year’s data to see whether the school’s trajectory is stable or shifting.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 364%

School 64% · District 59% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 451%

School 51% · District 51%

even with state median

Grade 559%

School 59% · District 47% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 364%

School 64% · District 60% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median

Grade 463%

School 63% · District 58% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 573%

School 73% · District 56% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median

Science

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 52% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 571%

School 71% · District 67% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median

This schoolKershaw 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 3Lower-income53%Higher-income83%30 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income60%Higher-income68%8 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income62%Higher-income84%22 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income53%Higher-income83%30 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income46%Higher-income61%15 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income48%Higher-income75%27 pp gap