Blythewood Middle, Blythewood SC

Original Research by School Decision on Blythewood Middle

Blythewood Middle is a regular public school serving grades six through eight in Richland County School District Two, located in the fast-growing suburban town of Blythewood, about a short drive north of Columbia. The school sits in a community that residents describe as tight-knit and southern in character, with a rural feel that is steadily giving way to new housing construction and commercial development. Blythewood is one of the fastest-growing towns in South Carolina, and the school sits within that growth context, drawing from a mix of established neighborhoods and newer subdivisions.

The student body is diverse. A majority of students are Black, with a substantial share of white students and smaller populations of Hispanic, multiracial, and Asian students. More than a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that places the school in a middle range economically. The school serves grades six through eight and enrolls a student population that is large for a middle school.

On state assessments, Blythewood Middle shows a clear strength in English language arts. Across all three tested grades, a majority of students scored proficient or above, with seventh grade posting the highest results. This is a genuine academic strength and places the school well above the midpoint in overall proficiency among middle schools in its county. Math results are more mixed. In each grade, less than half of students reached the proficient level, and the school’s overall math proficiency rate is notably lower than its ELA rate. Science results, available for sixth grade only, show a majority of students scoring proficient. Social studies data is from an older assessment year and is not current, so it does not factor into the present picture. The school’s overall proficiency index, which averages results across tested subjects and grades, lands in the top quartile among districts in Richland County, a strong showing driven largely by the ELA scores.

The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Data on chronic absenteeism, special education identification, and English learner populations were not available in the provided records, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those areas.

Blythewood Middle is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. It does not have a Title I designation in the available data. The school is part of Richland County School District Two, and the district brief turned up little in the way of recent major changes or strategic initiatives that would affect a parent’s decision.

Housing in the Blythewood area carries a value that is above the state benchmark, reflecting the desirability of the community. The town’s growth is driven in part by families drawn to the schools and the interstate access to Columbia and Charlotte. The Scout Motors electric vehicle plant under construction represents a major industrial investment that will likely continue to shape the area’s growth and housing market.

For a family considering Blythewood Middle, the picture is one of a school with clear academic strengths in reading and writing, a diverse student body, and a community that is growing quickly and investing in its future. The math results are a soft spot, and a parent may want to ask the school about how it supports students who are not yet at grade level in that subject. The school sits in a town that is car-dependent, with a suburban and rural character, and the rapid growth has brought infrastructure pressures that the town is working to address.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 33% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 747%

School 47% · District 30% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 843%

School 43% · District 27% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 661%

School 61% · District 50% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 773%

School 73% · District 52% · ▲ 20 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

Grade 864%

School 64% · District 50% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Science

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 44% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 788%

School 88% · District 64% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

This schoolRichland 02, 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-income41%Higher-income76%35 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income57%Higher-income86%29 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income53%Higher-income72%19 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income29%Higher-income58%28 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income36%Higher-income57%20 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income28%Higher-income53%25 pp gap