The top reported proficiency rate is 68% in Social studies. The lowest is 24% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Woodland Heights Elementary
Woodland Heights Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Spartanburg, within Spartanburg School District 6. It is a regular public school serving a population where the entire student enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a substantial indicator of the economic context families in this attendance zone navigate. The student body is diverse: Black students make up the largest group, followed by white, Hispanic, and multiracial students, with small Asian and American Indian or Alaska Native populations represented.
The school’s academic profile on state assessments presents a mixed picture. In English language arts, results are a relative strength. Across all three tested grades, the share of students meeting the proficiency bar sits in a range that is solidly above the school’s own math results. Third and fourth graders, in particular, had a majority reach the proficient or above level, a positive signal for early literacy and reading comprehension in a school with high economic need. Fifth graders had a lower but still near-majority rate.
Math performance is softer. Across grades three, four, and five, the proportion of students scoring proficient or above declines as the grades rise. The fifth-grade math result is the weakest of the core subjects, and this is a pattern a parent may want to explore further with the school. Science, tested only in fourth grade, shows that about a quarter of students reached proficiency. That is a notably low figure, and the state changed both the assessment name and cut scores for science in this period, which complicates direct comparisons to earlier years. The lone social studies result comes from the 2018-19 school year, several years old, and showed a majority scoring proficient under the older assessment; it is not current enough to draw conclusions about today’s classroom.
When placed against other schools within Spartanburg County, Woodland Heights’ overall proficiency index sits in the bottom quartile among the districts that had reported data. This positioning reflects the combination of the higher ELA results and the lower math and science results. The school’s overall proficiency index, as a combined measure, is below the median for the county, and a parent looking at options within Spartanburg 06 or the broader county will find several schools with stronger aggregate scores.
The broader context of Spartanburg matters here. The city is a mid-sized regional hub in the Upstate, with a diversified economy anchored by healthcare, higher education, corporate headquarters, and manufacturing. It has experienced a visible downtown revitalization in recent years, including a new minor league ballpark and hotel development. The city is neither a high-growth suburb nor a shrinking post-industrial town; it is a working city with a stable economic base. The school district itself, Spartanburg 6, did not have any recent major changes—such as boundary shifts, new program launches, or bond referendums—that surfaced in publicly reported sources, so families should rely on current school-level information and direct inquiries for the most up-to-date picture.
For a family considering Woodland Heights, the core takeaway is that this is a high-poverty school where English language arts outcomes are a genuine bright spot, while math and science performance are areas the school is working on alongside its peer high-poverty schools across the state. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse. The neighborhood is in the city of Spartanburg, not a surrounding suburb, and the housing market in the zip code area reflects a mix of values that are below both the state and national benchmarks, which is consistent with the school’s economic profile. A parent should weigh the reported academic gaps against the school’s literacy strength and consider what kind of supplemental support or enrichment they might need to seek outside the school day.
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