Creek Bridge Stem Academy, Marion SC

Original Research by School Decision on Creek Bridge Stem Academy

Creek Bridge STEM Academy serves students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, a single-campus school in the Marion 10 district. The school is located on a state highway just outside the city of Marion, the small county seat of Marion County. Marion itself is characterized by a historic courthouse square, a mix of residential neighborhoods, and light industry along corridors like the Marion Industrial Park. The town has emphasized historic preservation over rapid growth, with a large historic district and a restored former high school added to it. Families in the area work at employers such as a Coca-Cola distribution plant and several industrial-park tenants, and the city offers civic anchors like a public library, a county museum, and a two-mile Rails-to-Trails path. The school’s setting is rural-adjacent rather than densely suburban, and the broader region is not a high-growth one.

Enrollment at Creek Bridge is small for a school covering this grade span, and every student is reported as qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, an indicator that the school serves a population with high economic need. The student body is majority Black, with a much smaller share of white students and a modest Hispanic presence. The school’s name carries a STEM focus, though the data available does not describe specific program features, course offerings, or lab resources that would clarify what the STEM designation means in practice.

On state assessments, the picture is mixed and shows clear areas where families will want to learn more. In English language arts, proficiency rates across grades three through eight hover in a range that tops out above half of students meeting the bar in seventh grade, drops to around a quarter of students in sixth grade, and lands near two-fifths at the eighth-grade level. In math, the numbers are considerably lower. Proficiency rates across most tested grades sit in the lower twenties, and the eighth-grade math rate is very low—a sharp drop that stands out even within this pattern. Science results in fourth and sixth grade also show a small share of students reaching proficiency. The data covers only a single year, so it is not possible to assess whether these results represent a new trend or an established baseline. State testing data for pre-kindergarten through second grade is not available because those grades are not tested, which is consistent with the grade band the school serves.

Because Creek Bridge ends at eighth grade, there is no high school graduation rate to report. The school does not serve grades where a graduation measure would apply. Families who live in the attendance area and continue on to high school would move to a different school within the Marion 10 district or to another option. No information on chronic absenteeism, discipline patterns, or staffing ratios was available in the data provided.

Creek Bridge STEM Academy is a small, economically disadvantaged rural school where state test results in math and science give a parent reason to ask further questions about academic support and instructional approach. The STEM label promises a focus that the available data does not confirm with course or program detail. For a family considering this school, a direct conversation with the school about what the STEM designation means in the classroom, how the school supports students who are not yet at grade level in math, and what the transition to high school looks like would be the most productive next step.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 332%

School 32% · District 31% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 20 pts below state median

Grade 425%

School 25% · District 20% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 26 pts below state median

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 20% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 24 pts below state median

Grade 624%

School 24% · District 13% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median

Grade 722%

School 22% · District 10% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 86%

School 6% · District 6%

▼ 20 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 339%

School 39% · District 41% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 40% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 20 pts below state median

Grade 542%

School 42% · District 41% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 18 pts below state median

Grade 627%

School 27% · District 33% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median

Grade 751%

School 51% · District 34% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 13 pts below state median

Science

Grade 420%

School 20% · District 21% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median

Grade 621%

School 21% · District 18% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 23 pts below state median

This schoolMarion 10, 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.