Liberty Elementary, Liberty SC - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Liberty Elementary

Liberty Elementary is a regular public school in the small town of Liberty, South Carolina, serving grades three through five. It sits within the School District of Pickens County, part of the broader Greenville–Mauldin–Easley metropolitan area. Liberty itself is a traditional railroad town with a compact downtown along Front Street, a public library, and a modest mix of residential and commercial uses. Two new schools were recently built in the community, reflecting an investment in facilities, though Liberty Elementary itself was not identified as one of them. The town’s population is relatively stable, and it functions as a bedroom community within commuting distance of Greenville.

The school enrolls an ample number of students for an upper-elementary campus, spread evenly across the three grade levels. The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial share of Hispanic students and a smaller but notable group identifying as two or more races. Every student in the school qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a clear signal that the community it draws from is economically strained. This level of concentrated poverty is an important context for reading any performance data; it often correlates with additional challenges that schools must work to overcome.

On state assessments, Liberty Elementary shows a clear pattern: English language arts is a relative strength, while math proficiency is more varied and science lags behind. In ELA, the share of students scoring proficient or above rises steadily across the grades, reaching a solid majority in fifth grade. Math proficiency sits at roughly half of students in each tested grade, with fourth grade performing somewhat better than third or fifth. Science, tested only in fourth grade, shows a much lower proficiency rate, which a parent may want to look into further with the school, especially since a 30 percent figure is a noticeable gap compared to the other subjects. These results come from the 2024-25 school year, and the state changed cut scores for ELA and science in that year, so direct comparisons with prior years are not possible. Only a single year of data is available in the trends, so there is no way to see whether performance is improving or declining.

Because the school serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate, no data on chronic absenteeism, and no information on discipline or staffing. The district’s publicly reported changes were minimal, and no specific program offerings were listed for the school. For a family considering Liberty Elementary, the picture is one of a high-poverty school where ELA outcomes are reasonably solid, math is more mixed, and science is a clear area of need. The housing market in Liberty is relatively affordable compared to state and national benchmarks, with home values below the state median and rents that are moderate in relation to incomes. That affordability may appeal to families looking for lower-cost entry into the Greenville metro area, but the school’s economic context means that resources and support services can be expected to play an outsized role in student outcomes. A parent would be wise to ask about interventions in math and science, as well as how the school addresses the needs of its high-needs population.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 346%

School 46% · District 57% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 64% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 53% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 355%

School 55% · District 64% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 460%

School 60% · District 71% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 564%

School 64% · District 68% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Science

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 55% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 76% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

This schoolPickens 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-income67%14 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income57%Higher-income70%13 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income61%Higher-income74%13 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income43%Higher-income59%16 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income52%Higher-income69%18 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income48%Higher-income47%0 pp gap