Killian Elementary, Columbia SC - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Killian Elementary

Killian Elementary is a regular public school in Columbia, South Carolina, serving students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Richland 02 district. The school sits in a city that blends state government, the flagship University of South Carolina campus, and Fort Jackson, the Army’s largest basic training installation, all within a landscape of unusually wide streets originally laid out in a two-mile grid. For a family considering this school, what matters most is what happens inside its walls and how the community around it shapes the experience.

On state assessments, Killian’s performance across tested grades and subjects places it above the midpoint among districts in Richland County, a measure that pulls together math, English language arts, and science results. The proficiency pattern varies by grade level. In math, fourth graders show a stronger share reaching proficiency than fifth graders, while third graders fall between those two. In ELA, the same grade-to-grade range appears, with fourth graders again posting the highest rate and third graders the lowest. Science testing in fourth grade shows a rate similar to the middle of the school’s own range. An older data point from social studies in fifth grade, from a different assessment and earlier year, suggested higher performance, but that test and cut scores have since changed, so it offers limited comparison. Because this is the only year of data available for the current assessments, there is no trend to indicate whether the school is improving or declining. A parent may want to ask the school about recent patterns and how they address the drop some cohorts show as they move up.

The student body is large for an elementary school and is predominantly Black, with smaller shares of Hispanic, white, and multiracial students, and very few Asian or American Indian students. Every single student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of high economic need across the entire school. Information on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the data provided, so a family with a child in either of those groups may want to follow up directly with the school to understand the support structure. No data on discipline, staffing ratios, or attendance was present, leaving those aspects of the school environment uncharacterized here.

Columbia itself is a growing city, with steady population increase downtown and in the suburbs, though the school’s immediate housing context shows a market where home values and rents have both been rising. The wider city is shaped by major employers: state government, the university, Fort Jackson, and the Prisma Health hospital system. For Killian families, living within the attendance zone places them in a suburban stretch of Columbia near Clemson Road, a corridor that connects to the city’s broader commercial and employment hubs.

Because Killian serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to consider, and no high school course pathways or career programs to evaluate. The academic picture is one of a school that, by the available measure, sits in a middle-to-slightly-above position relative to other elementary schools in the county, but with notable variation across both subjects and grades. The uniformly high poverty rate means the school likely receives Title I funding and associated supports, though the data did not confirm the exact Title I status. A parent weighing Killian should look into how the school addresses the gaps between its higher-performing and lower-performing grade levels, and what enrichment or intervention programs exist for students who need extra help. The lack of broader program offerings or trend data means this is a school where a direct conversation with the principal or a visit would be especially valuable.

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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 · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 55% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 48% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 344%

School 44% · District 58% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 460%

School 60% · District 61%

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

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 57% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 49% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Social studies

Grade 572%

School 72% · District 73% · ▼ 1 pts below district

even with state median · ▲ 6 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 5Lower-income45%Higher-income62%17 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income34%Higher-income43%9 pp gap