Cannons Elementary vs Jesse Boyd Elementary

Jesse Boyd Elementary ranks #6 of 1,176 schools in South Carolina, placing it among the state's top handful of elementary schools. Cannons Elementary, at #47 of 1,176, is no underperformer — it sits comfortably in the top 4% statewide — but the gap between the two is meaningful: Jesse Boyd Elementary scores 9.2/10 overall against Cannons Elementary's 8.7/10, a half-point difference that reflects a real separation at the upper end of the ratings scale where increments are hard-won.

On academics, the two schools flip: Cannons Elementary holds a slight edge with an 8.9/10 academic score versus Jesse Boyd Elementary's 8.4/10. Both schools post identical growth scores of 9.5/10, meaning students at each campus advance at equally strong rates relative to their starting points. Jesse Boyd Elementary's higher overall rating, then, is not driven by outsized academic proficiency but reflects a broader composite that lifts it to an elite statewide position despite Cannons Elementary's academic lead.

The demographic contrast between the two campuses is sharp. Cannons Elementary enrolls 432 students and serves 100% on free or reduced lunch, compared with Jesse Boyd Elementary's 550 students and 50% FRL rate. The student-teacher ratio at Jesse Boyd Elementary is 12.5:1, the tighter of the two, while Cannons Elementary runs at 14.4:1 — still reasonable, but nearly two additional students per teacher on average. Cannons Elementary's results under full-population FRL make its academic score of 8.9/10 especially notable.

Both schools serve grades PK–05 and sit just 3.8 miles apart in Spartanburg, South Carolina, making proximity largely a wash for families with access to either campus. There are no reported program or extracurricular distinctions between the two in the available data, so the meaningful differentiators remain the state rank, the demographic profiles, and the academic-versus-overall rating crossover.