Sandel Elementary, Columbia SC - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Sandel Elementary

Sandel Elementary serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Columbia, South Carolina, as part of the Richland 01 school district. The school is located in the northwestern part of the city, in a residential area near the Seminole Road corridor. Columbia itself is a capital city with a mix of state government, the University of South Carolina’s flagship campus, and Fort Jackson, the Army’s largest basic training installation, all of which shape the community’s texture. The city’s downtown and university are closely intertwined, and the broader metropolitan area has seen steady population growth.

The school enrolls several hundred students, making it a mid-sized elementary school for its grade band. All students at Sandel qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a level of economic need that the school faces broadly. The student body is predominantly Black, with smaller shares of Hispanic, Asian, White, and multiracial students. Data on the share of students with disabilities or those learning English was not available from the reporting used here, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.

On state assessments, Sandel’s results in the most recent testing year place it in the bottom quartile among elementary schools in Richland County on overall proficiency. The available data, which covers a single school year, shows a mixed picture by subject and grade. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above was in the upper twenties across grades three through five. In English language arts, results were somewhat higher, ranging from the mid-thirties to the mid-forties depending on the grade, with fourth graders showing the strongest performance of any tested group. Science, assessed in fourth grade, landed near the lower end of the elementary set. Older social studies results from several years ago are on the page but are too dated to inform the current picture. Because only one year of testing data is available for most subjects, it is not possible to say whether these results represent a trend or a single snapshot. The district recently changed cut scores for English language arts and science, which means comparisons to prior years are not straightforward.

Sandel is a regular public school with no charter or magnet designation. The local district, Richland 01, covers a large portion of Columbia and surrounding areas. A search for recent district-level changes that parents would want to know about yielded little publicly reported information, so this piece does not reflect any new programs or initiatives at the system level.

For a family considering this school, the core takeaway is that Sandel serves a high-needs population and post-assessment results that, in a countywide comparison, are on the lower end. Families may want to explore what academic supports, enrichment programs, or community partnerships are in place, as the data does not capture those details. The school’s setting in Columbia means access to the resources of a capital city with a major university and military base nearby, though those institutions are not directly tied to the school itself. A parent would benefit from visiting, speaking with the principal about how the school addresses its academic challenges, and understanding what after-school or family engagement opportunities exist.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 327%

School 27% · District 47% · ▼ 19 pts below district

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

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 42% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 37% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 336%

School 36% · District 54% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 446%

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

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 56% · ▼ 16 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 434%

School 34% · District 41% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 63% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

This schoolRichland 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.