Does high growth lead to better schools? Look at Lake Wylie, Fort Mill, Indian Land
No, it’s not something in the water that pushes some school test scores to the head of the class. But being close to water doesn’t seem to hurt.
Fort Mill, Tega Cay, Indian Land and Lake Wylie are in different school districts. And they’re not all in the same county. Yet that commuter corridor, east of the Catawba River to the western shores of Lake Wylie, shares more than dense traffic, explosive growth and ever-increasing new subdivisions.
Schools in that corridor perform at or among the best in South Carolina.
Herald reporter John Marks examined and combined recent state data on English, math and science scores for elementary and middle school students. The Fort Mill School District ranked highest in the state in 13 of 14 areas by grade and subject. But schools in contiguous districts also had some strong performing schools.
Test score data shows York County has the state’s No. 1 performing school district.
Lake Wylie schools are part of the Clover School District. Indian Land schools are part of the Lancaster County School District. Both districts fared well on their own.
Clover was close behind Fort Mill across the board, and Lancaster County was routinely top third, and sometimes a top 10 district statewide. Schools in Lake Wylie and Indian Land, however, were even better than their districts as a whole. Those schools were contiguous to the Fort Mill District and sometimes outperformed the Fort Mill district as a whole.
Which schools compare well?
In the Clover district Bethel, Crowders Creek and Oakridge elementary schools attendance boundaries touch Lake Wylie. So does Oakridge Middle. Schools in the Lancaster County panhandle include Harrisburg, Indian Land and Van Wyck elementary schools, Indian Land Intermediate and Indian Land Middle schools.
Comparing those individual commuter region schools to overall districts in South Carolina, they each would routinely rank in the top five for student performance. Lake Wylie and Indian Land schools fit in just behind Fort Mill and would be ahead of the second best districts in fourth, fifth and sixth grade English. Harrisburg and Bethel scored better than Fort Mill or any other district in third grade English, with Oakridge and Indian Land elementary schools behind Fort Mill but above the second best district.
Oakridge Middle performed better than any district statewide in sixth and eighth grade math. Oakridge and Crowders Creek elementary schools bested all districts in third, fourth and fifth grade math.
All six Lake Wylie and Indian Land elementary schools performed better than the Fort Mill district in third grade math, the only grade-subject combination that Fort Mill didn’t score best in the state (it was No. 2). Five of the six schools performed better than any district in the state.
Lake Wylie and Indian Land students fell between the top two districts, Fort Mill and Clover, in sixth grade science. Crowders Creek and Oakridge elementary schools fared better than any district in fourth grade science.
Of note, Fort Mill has 11 elementary schools and six middle schools that individually performed better or worse than its district averages. Across grades and subjects tested, individual Fort Mill schools performed better and worse than other commuter region schools in Lake Wylie and Indian Land.
High school scores
Soon after the state released elementary and middle school test scores, high school scores followed.
A commuter region breakdown there isn’t as easy.
Again all Fort Mill schools — three high schools and six middle schools offering high school level courses — fall on the east side side of the Catawba River. Indian Land High School covers most of the Lancaster County panhandle. But until a second high school opens in 2026 in the Clover district, all high school scores there cover that entire district.
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Fort Mill and Clover were the top two performing districts, among 520 middle and high school districts in the state, in Algebra 1. Lake Wylie and Indian Land middle schools ranked behind four Fort Mill middle schools. All three Fort Mill high schools topped the region but Clover was only two spots behind Fort Mill high. Indian Land was almost 40 spots behind them.
Fort Mill and Clover again were among the top districts in Biology 1. Fort Mill (No. 8), Catawba Ridge (No. 11) and Nation Ford (No. 14) high schools led Clover at No. 28 and Indian Land at No. 50 statewide.
U.S. History and English 1 told similar tales. Fort Mill schools sat atop the region and at or near the top of the state, with Clover and Indian Land schools not far behind them.
This is where Rock Hill region high schools rank in most recent end of course testing
Geographic, demographic similarities
School scores aren’t the only similarities that stretch through the commuter region. Everything from population growth trends to traffic, demographics, home sale prices and need for new schools runs similar throughout the area.
Fort Mill, Tega Cay and the space between them have long driven York County’s population growth. But so has Lake Wylie. The area considered Lake Wylie by the U.S. Census Bureau is a good bit smaller than what locals would consider it to be (it doesn’t run west of the Three Points or Five Points intersections), yet it still registered 13,655 residents in the 2020 Census.
That number is up almost 55% in a decade. If it were incorporated, Lake Wylie would rank right alongside Tega Cay, which is the third largest city or town in York, Lancaster or Chester counties.
New census data shows Fort Mill area is among fastest growing in the Carolinas
From 2000 to 2010 Lancaster County grew about 57%. Indian Land led that surge. As of the 2020 Census, the panhandle had 40,680 residents, or roughly 42% of the entire county population. The 70-square-mile panhandle covers only 13% of the total Lancaster County.
Affluence is another common theme.
The Lancaster County panhandle has nine census tracts. In the southernmost seven, residents range from $78,000 to $117,000 in median household income. The 6,600 residents just north of them make more than $127,000. The more than 3,400 residents on the northernmost tip of the panhandle bring in almost $196,000.
The median household income for all of Lancaster County is about $68,000. The statewide figure is about $58,000.
In Lake Wylie, the median household income is almost $108,000. Even with areas like Fort Mill (almost $121,000) and Tega Cay (almost $131,000) included, York County has a median household income of about $72,000.
Growth, traffic and future challenges
All the schools are in what can be identified as a commuter corridor. Interstate 77 connects Rock Hill to Charlotte and Columbia. Tens of thousands of people drive daily back and forth between the two cities, using S.C. 49 and U.S. 521 also as key feeder routes.
The areas with the best schools lie in this network of roads.
Fort Mill has the most driven stretch of road in South Carolina -- I-77 north of Carowinds Boulevard. Fort Mill interstate stops are the busiest areas by traffic volume in the region.
Lake Wylie outpunches its size with several busy spots on S.C. 49, and the most traffic Lancaster County sees comes along U.S. 521 in Indian Land just below Ballantyne and Charlotte.
SCDOT data shows Rock Hill region has state’s most heavily traveled stretch of road.
York County is in the midst of creating its next Pennies for Progress list to see if voters will approve another one-cent sales tax to fix and improve roads. Lancaster County is mulling a new, similar program.
Should Lancaster County charge a sales tax to fix roads? Voters may get to decide
Fort Mill is now up to 20 schools. Bonds have become routine in recent decades as a way to keep up with growth. Impact fees are collected. Indian Land and Lake Wylie are similar. The Clover district has a Lake Wylie area high school on the way after its most recent bond. Lancaster County is working now to create a new referendum list, likely to feature Indian Land needs.
Will Indian Land get new schools as population soars? Here’s what has to happen first
When the Fort Mill school board met for its September meeting, superintendent Chuck Epps spoke about the recent data on test scores. He updated enrollment numbers, for what is the largest district in York County despite being the smallest geographic district in the state.
The board also talked about enrollment freezes and challenges to maintaining high scores.
“One reason we’ve enjoyed such academic success is the lower teacher-pupil ratios,” Epps said.
The state funding model for education isn’t advantageous for high-growth districts, Epps said. Maintaining lower student-teacher ratios will continue to be a stresser each year unless something changes, he said. Within five years Epps projects major decisions will be needed.
“This is where we’re going to make some big decisions about increasing loads,” Epps said.
