Liberty Steam Charter School, Sumter SC

Original Research by School Decision on Liberty Steam Charter School

Liberty STEAM Charter School is a public charter school in downtown Sumter, serving kindergarten through third grade. Because it serves only the earliest grades, there is no graduation rate, and the school is not set up to offer advanced coursework, sports teams, or the full program of a middle or high school. For families considering this school, the key question is what happens after third grade, since the school does not yet serve older students, and that information is not available in the data.

The school sits within the SC Public Charter School District, a statewide authorizer rather than a traditional geographic district. The district brief turned up no recent policy or funding changes, so what a parent sees now is likely what the school offers. The school is located at 15 Church Street in downtown Sumter, a mid-sized city that serves as a regional hub for east-central South Carolina. Sumter’s dominant employer is Shaw Air Force Base, and the city also hosts a major medical center, manufacturing, and biotech firms. The city has a defined downtown core with community events, more than 30 parks, and two state parks, but the broader area is car-dependent. Housing in the Sumter area is notably more affordable than the state and national benchmarks, with rents rising modestly.

The student body is roughly half Black and well over a third white, with small shares of Hispanic and multiracial students. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Enrollment is spread evenly across kindergarten through third grade, with each grade at roughly the same size. The school is small in its grade band, and the student composition reflects the local population.

On state assessments, which apply to third and fourth graders, proficiency rates are solid in reading. In math, about half of fourth graders scored proficient or above, and a higher share of third graders did. In science, a smaller share of fourth graders reached proficiency. The school has only one year of testing data available, so there is no trend to examine. A parent may want to ask the school how it plans to build on these results as students move up.

The school’s name points to a STEAM focus, but the data provided does not include any detail on the specific programs, curriculum, or enrichment offerings that support that emphasis. The grade band—kindergarten through third grade—means that students spend their entire early elementary years in this setting, and a family would need to plan for a transition to another school afterward. The district brief turned up no information on the school’s future growth plans or whether it will add upper grades. For a family weighing this option, the central consideration is the fit of a small, downtown charter for the primary grades, with the understanding that the middle and upper grades are not yet part of the picture.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 363%

School 63% · District 50% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 44% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 361%

School 61% · District 59% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 464%

School 64% · District 60% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 439%

School 39% · District 43% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

This schoolSC Public Charter School District, 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-income63%Higher-income57%6 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income60%Higher-income74%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income65%Higher-income57%8 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income51%Higher-income63%13 pp gap