Estill Middle, Estill SC - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Estill Middle

Estill Middle sits in the small, rural Lowcountry town of Estill in Hampton County, a community founded as a railroad stop where timber and agriculture remain the major industries. The town has experienced consistent population decline over recent decades, and the 2020 census recorded fewer residents than in prior counts. A Federal Correctional Institution is located nearby, and the local economy offers limited employment outside the prison, town government, and agricultural sector. Housing in the area is notably affordable, with home values well below state and national benchmarks, reflecting the area’s modest economic conditions.

Estill Middle serves roughly a hundred and twenty students in grades six through eight, though state testing data appears here for grade five as well, perhaps a reporting artifact. Every student at the school qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, an indicator of the community’s widespread economic need. The student body is overwhelmingly Black, with a small Hispanic share and a tiny number of White students and students of two or more races. This is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and it is part of the Hampton district, which covers multiple towns in the county.

On state assessments, the school’s results show a wide range of proficiency across subjects and grades. In reading and language arts, overall proficiency across tested grades is roughly one-third of students, with sixth graders performing the strongest and fifth graders the weakest. Math proficiency overall is lower, about one in five students meeting the state’s benchmark. Again, sixth graders stand apart with a higher rate, while seventh graders show the lowest math performance, under one in ten. Science was tested only in sixth grade, where about two-fifths of students scored proficient. These are modest figures compared to the state as a whole, and a parent exploring this school may want to ask the staff about academic support strategies and how the school addresses the uneven results across grades.

Because Estill Middle serves only middle school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The school does not appear to offer the advanced coursework, career pathways, or dual-credit programs that high schools provide, and no data on discipline, attendance, or staffing was available for this profile. The district, Hampton, had no public recent changes of note that would reshape a family’s understanding of the school.

The housing market in Estill itself is affordable by both state and national measures, and the town’s character is that of a tight-knit, slowly shrinking rural community. For a family considering Estill Middle, the school offers a small, close setting where every student participates in the free lunch program. The academic performance is uneven, with bright spots in sixth-grade reading and science but clear soft spots in middle-grade math. A parent may want to investigate the school’s instructional interventions and how the school supports students who enter below grade level.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 518%

School 18% · District 40% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median

Grade 639%

School 39% · District 35% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median

Grade 79%

School 9% · District 13% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 815%

School 15% · District 23% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 518%

School 18% · District 58% · ▼ 40 pts below district

▼ 42 pts below state median

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 57% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 730%

School 30% · District 46% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median

Grade 836%

School 36% · District 54% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median

Science

Grade 640%

School 40% · District 41% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median

This schoolHampton, 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.