NCES CCD 2024-25 5 schools SC

Best-Resourced Schools in Hilton Head Island, SC

Compiled from official source data by .

5 public K-12 schools in Hilton Head Island from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
5
Schools
3,542
Students
46.6/100
Avg Resource Index
11:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

One campus shapes the city average

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Hilton Head Island has more public-school enrollment than 37% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Hilton Head Island High enrolls 35.7% of Hilton Head Island's public-school students. That is enough concentration for one institution to pull the citywide enrollment, staffing, and Resource Index averages toward its own profile. The smaller campuses below should therefore be compared directly rather than inferred from the headline mean; their grade configurations and program footprints can be materially different even inside the same district.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

2 of Hilton Head Island's 5 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.

One district, but meaningful resource variation

Hilton Head Island's schools share one district authority while their average Resource Investment Index ranks at the 76th percentile among listed cities. Shared governance removes one source of policy variation, but it does not erase campus differences by grade span or enrollment. The 17-point gap between Hilton Head Island School for the Creative Arts and Hilton Head Island High measures the remaining local spread. Use the district-level picture for common budget context, then compare the school components to see whether staffing, counseling, gifted-program reporting, or attendance accounts for each campus's position.

City enrollment
Top 63%
School count
Top 99%
Resource Index average
76th percentile
Teacher staffing
95th percentile

Hilton Head Island High accounts for 35.7% of all Hilton Head Island public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Hilton Head Island-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Hilton Head Island school enrollment varies 4.2× across entities

Hilton Head Island school enrollment ranges from 301 students (lowest) to 1,265 students (highest), a spread of 964 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Hilton Head Island operates one school district — a single-district system

Hilton Head Island's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Hilton Head Island student-teacher ratio is 11.0:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Hilton Head Island School for the Creative Arts 58
2. Hilton Head Island Elementary 49
3. Hilton Head Island Middle 43
4. Hilton Head Island Early Childhood Center 42
5. Hilton Head Island High 41

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Hilton Head Island

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Hilton Head Island School for the Creative Arts 64.3/100
  2. 2 Hilton Head Island High 63.2/100
  3. 3 Hilton Head Island Middle 62.9/100
  4. 4 Hilton Head Island Elementary 60.0/100
  5. 5 Hilton Head Island Early Childhood Center 57.8/100

What do families ask about schools in Hilton Head Island?

Which Hilton Head Island school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Hilton Head Island School for the Creative Arts has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Hilton Head Island schools in this federal-data comparison at 58/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Hilton Head Island, SC? ▼

Hilton Head Island has 5 public schools with a total enrollment of 3,542 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 11:1.

Other Cities in South Carolina

Columbia
75 schools
Greenville
51 schools
Charleston
32 schools
North Charleston
30 schools
Spartanburg
29 schools
Rock Hill
27 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in South Carolina →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.