25 public K-12 schools in Myrtle Beach from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
National city placement
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Myrtle Beach has more public-school enrollment than 94% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Myrtle Beach sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.
10 of Myrtle Beach's 25 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.
Myrtle Beach's average Resource Investment Index sits at the 89th percentile, while its teacher-staffing measure sits at the 44th percentile. The 45-point percentile gap is a reminder that the index is not a class-size score: counselors, gifted-program reporting, and attendance also affect it. Compare those components directly when two schools have similar index totals; the same headline score can arise from a different mix of reported resources.
Myrtle Beach school enrollment ranges from 125 students (lowest) to 3,176 students (highest), a spread of 3,051 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. 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
The reported share sits between 62.5% and 75%, above a simple majority but below the highest descriptive band used here. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
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 Variation between sub-units within Myrtle Beach is typically wider than the Myrtle Beach-aggregate figure suggests.
12% of the city's listed public-school campuses are reported as charter schools in NCES CCD. Charter status identifies a different governance arrangement; it does not establish admissions availability, academic quality, or the share of city students enrolled in those campuses. Open each school record to compare enrollment and staffing directly.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
| # | School | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Palmetto Academy of Learning and Success Charter | 65 |
| 2. | Lakewood Elementary | 62 |
| 3. | Socastee Elementary | 59 |
| 4. | Palmetto Bays Elementary | 59 |
| 5. | Coastal Leadership Academy | 58 |
| 6. | River Oaks Elementary | 57 |
| 7. | Forestbrook Elementary | 56 |
| 8. | St. James Elementary | 55 |
| 9. | Burgess Elementary | 55 |
| 10. | Carolina Forest Elementary | 53 |
| 11. | Socastee Middle | 53 |
| 12. | Ten Oaks Middle | 52 |
| 13. | St. James Intermediate | 52 |
| 14. | Ocean Bay Elementary | 50 |
| 15. | Myrtle Beach Middle | 50 |
| 16. | St. James Middle | 50 |
| 17. | Myrtle Beach Elementary | 49 |
| 18. | Forestbrook Middle | 49 |
| 19. | Ocean Bay Middle | 48 |
| 20. | Bridgewater Academy Charter | 43 |
| 21. | Socastee High | 42 |
| 22. | Myrtle Beach Early Childhood | 42 |
| 23. | Myrtle Beach High | 39 |
| 24. | Carolina Forest High | 38 |
| 25. | Myrtle Beach Primary | 37 |
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.
Palmetto Academy of Learning and Success Charter has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Myrtle Beach schools in this federal-data comparison at 65/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
Myrtle Beach has 25 public schools with a total enrollment of 24,456 students. 3 are charter schools. Average student-teacher ratio: 15.9:1.
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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.
