Sanders Middle, Laurens SC - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Sanders Middle

Sanders Middle School serves grades six through eight in Laurens, South Carolina, as part of the Laurens 55 school district. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. The student body is diverse, with Black students making up the largest share, followed by White students, a sizable Hispanic population, and a small number of students who identify as two or more races or as Asian.

Every student at Sanders Middle qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker that the school serves a community with high economic need. The school sits in Laurens, the county seat of Laurens County, a small city organized around a historic courthouse square. The local economy includes a mix of industrial employers such as CeramTec and International Paper, a large Walmart distribution center, and recent heavy industrial investment from ZF Group. The city's population has been slightly declining.

On state assessments, Sanders Middle's proficiency rates are low relative to other districts in Laurens County. Across tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile among the county's two districts. In math, proficiency rates were below one in five students at every grade level. In English language arts, performance was higher but still below half of students meeting the bar, ranging from roughly three in ten sixth graders to about four in ten eighth graders. Science proficiency for sixth graders was just under a third. These figures are from the most recent school year with reported data.

The school has no available data on chronic absenteeism or on the share of students served by special education or English learner programs. A parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports and how students with different learning needs are accommodated. There is also no data on course access, discipline rates, or staffing ratios, so it is not possible to describe those dimensions from the available evidence.

Laurens itself is a compact city where civic life centers on the courthouse square. Schools are on separate campuses around town rather than concentrated in one area. The city sits within the broader Greenville-Mauldin-Easley metropolitan area, which means that while Laurens has its own local identity and employers, it is also within commuting range of a larger regional economy. Housing in the area is below state and national benchmarks, making it more affordable compared to many parts of South Carolina.

Sanders Middle is a school where the economic circumstances of the community are clear, and where state test results suggest that a majority of students are not yet reaching grade-level proficiency in core subjects. A family considering the school would likely want to understand what academic interventions and supports are in place, and how the school works with students who are behind grade level. Without data on programming or staffing, those are questions to raise directly with the school or district.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 619%

School 19% · District 22% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median

Grade 711%

School 11% · District 20% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median

Grade 816%

School 16% · District 15% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 630%

School 30% · District 41% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median

Grade 738%

School 38% · District 43% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median

Grade 841%

School 41% · District 41%

▼ 12 pts below state median

Science

Grade 632%

School 32% · District 35% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 757%

School 57% · District 64% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median

This schoolLaurens 55, 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.