Eighteen of the Fort Mill School District’s 21 schools earned the state’s top overall rating of Excellent on the 2026 South Carolina School Report Cards, released Monday by the South Carolina Department of Education. The remaining three were rated Good.
That is up from 15 Excellent ratings a year ago. Doby’s Bridge Elementary, Orchard Park Elementary and Sugar Creek Elementary each moved from Good to Excellent, while Riverview Elementary slipped from Excellent to Good.
The report cards are the state’s yearly public accounting of how every school and district performs, and they are one of the first places families look when choosing where to live. Fort Mill enrolls 18,124 students, the largest enrollment of York County’s four districts, even though it covers only 53 square miles, according to the district’s narrative on its report card.
Statewide, the number of schools rated Excellent rose from 270 to 320, and the graduation rate reached 87.5 percent, the highest in a decade, according to the department. State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver announced the results at the State House.
How the Schools Rated
All three Fort Mill high schools were rated Excellent and posted the district’s highest scores. Catawba Ridge High School scored 86 points, up from 83. Fort Mill High School scored 84, up from 82, and Nation Ford High School scored 76, up from 73.
All six middle schools held their Excellent ratings. Fort Mill Middle School led with 68 points. Banks Trail Middle School and Forest Creek Middle School each scored 60, down from 67 and 63, respectively.
Kings Town Elementary posted the top elementary score in the district at 71, followed by Tega Cay Elementary at 69, up from 66. Orchard Park Elementary showed the largest gain of any Fort Mill school, rising 10 points to 67.
Flint Hill Elementary, which missed class days last spring during the response to chemical spills at the nearby Silfab Solar plant, was rated Excellent with 63 points. The school has no 2025 rating listed on the state site.
Fort Mill Elementary, Pleasant Knoll Elementary and Riverview Elementary were rated Good. Fort Mill Elementary scored 53, down from 56 and one point above the range the state uses for an Average rating at the elementary level.
Student Progress Lags
Every Fort Mill school earned an Excellent rating in Academic Achievement, the indicator built on state test scores. The Student Progress indicator, which measures how much students improve from one year to the next, told a different story.
Only Fort Mill Middle and Springfield Middle School earned Excellent in Student Progress. Ten schools were rated Average, and Pleasant Knoll Elementary was rated Below Average. The state release said middle schools statewide saw the strongest growth on that measure, with the share rated Good or Excellent more than doubling since 2024.
Reading and Math
On the SC READY tests taken by students in grades three through eight, 81.6 percent of Fort Mill students met or exceeded expectations in English language arts, compared with 61.5 percent statewide. That figure dipped slightly from 82.5 percent in 2025 but remains above the 77.3 percent the district posted in 2024.
In math, 73.5 percent of Fort Mill students met or exceeded expectations, up from 69.9 percent last year. The state average was 47.8 percent. More than four in 10 Fort Mill students scored at the top level, Exceeds Expectations, in both subjects.
On the Algebra 1 end of course exam, 92.2 percent of Fort Mill students scored a C or higher, up from 74.4 percent in 2025. Scores also rose sharply across South Carolina, where 67.1 percent earned a C or better, up from 51.6 percent. In English 2, 89.1 percent of district students scored a C or higher, compared with 67.8 percent statewide.
Graduation and College Readiness
Of the 1,357 students in Fort Mill’s graduating class, 1,299 earned diplomas within four years, a rate of 95.7 percent. The district’s rate has held between 95.6 and 95.8 percent in each of the three previous years.
The report card lists 91.7 percent of Fort Mill’s graduating class as college or career ready, compared with 78.9 percent statewide. The district tested 95.3 percent of its students on the SAT and posted an average score of 1,084, compared with 1,013 statewide, where about half of students took the test. Fort Mill students passed 92.5 percent of the 2,992 Advanced Placement exams they took.
The share of graduating students eligible for the state’s LIFE Scholarship fell to 45.5 percent from 60.9 percent the year before.
Students with disabilities graduated at 75.6 percent, compared with 98 percent for their classmates. The state release named closing achievement gaps for students with disabilities as a major priority for the Department of Education.
Schools Recognized
The district narrative highlighted Tega Cay Elementary, Pleasant Knoll Elementary and Catawba Ridge High School as Blue Ribbon Lighthouse Schools. River Trail Elementary was named a Model Professional Learning Community school, and Springfield Elementary was named a Gold Star School by the National Association of Elementary School Principals.
Full report cards for each school and the district are posted at screportcards.com.
Fort Mill School Ratings at a Glance
2026 overall rating and score, with 2025 in parentheses
High Schools
Catawba Ridge High: Excellent, 86 (Excellent, 83)
Fort Mill High: Excellent, 84 (Excellent, 82)
Nation Ford High: Excellent, 76 (Excellent, 73)
Middle Schools
Fort Mill Middle: Excellent, 68 (Excellent, 69)
Gold Hill Middle: Excellent, 65 (Excellent, 66)
Springfield Middle: Excellent, 64 (Excellent, 63)
Pleasant Knoll Middle: Excellent, 63 (Excellent, 63)
Banks Trail Middle: Excellent, 60 (Excellent, 67)
Forest Creek Middle: Excellent, 60 (Excellent, 63)
Elementary Schools
Kings Town Elementary: Excellent, 71 (Excellent, 65)
Tega Cay Elementary: Excellent, 69 (Excellent, 66)
Orchard Park Elementary: Excellent, 67 (Good, 57)
River Trail Elementary: Excellent, 66 (Excellent, 73)
Springfield Elementary: Excellent, 66 (Excellent, 66)
Doby’s Bridge Elementary: Excellent, 65 (Good, 60)
Gold Hill Elementary: Excellent, 65 (Excellent, 69)
Sugar Creek Elementary: Excellent, 64 (Good, 57)
Flint Hill Elementary: Excellent, 63 (no 2025 rating)
Pleasant Knoll Elementary: Good, 60 (Good, 58)
Riverview Elementary: Good, 60 (Excellent, 63)
Fort Mill Elementary: Good, 53 (Good, 56)
Sign up for our Sunday Spectator. Delivered to your inbox every Sunday, with all the news from the week.
Thomas Hyslip lives in Tega Cay with his wife and daughter. After 27 years in the U.S. Army and Federal Law Enforcement, he retired to pursue his passion for teaching. Tom is now an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the University of South Florida. In 2 short years he has won 10 awards from the South Carolina Press Association, including first place in column writing, education beat reporting and best podcast.
