Best Middle Schools in Pinetops, NC

Pinetops, North Carolina, is served by a single middle school, South Edgecombe Middle, which enrolls 271 students in grades 6 through 8 and belongs to the Edgecombe County Public Schools district, a district that carries a 1-star rating and ranks in the bottom 13% of North Carolina districts.

South Edgecombe Middle has shown clear upward momentum, improving its state ranking from the 29th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 44th percentile in 2025–2026 and earning a 2-star rating in the two most recent school years. The school serves an almost universally economically disadvantaged student body, with 98.89% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, and its chronic absenteeism rate of 41.0% is roughly 17 points above the state average of 24.2%. Despite these challenges, academic proficiency improved substantially year over year: overall proficiency rose from 47.2% to 53.9%, a gain of 6.7 percentage points, while the district and state each gained about 3.8 points. The school now sits roughly 17 points above the district average of 36.9% and only about 4 points below the state average of 57.7% across all tested subjects.

The standout strength of South Edgecombe Middle is 6th grade math, where 65.7% of students are proficient, 30.1 points above the district and 6.5 points above the state. Eighth grade science is also a relative strength at 65.9% proficiency, just 2.7 points below the state, and it improved by 15.3 points in a single year. However, performance declines in later grades: 7th grade math trails the state by 6.2 points, 8th grade math by 7.9 points, and 8th grade reading by 12.2 points. The school substantially outperforms its low-ranked district and is steadily closing the gap to state averages despite real challenges tied to poverty and attendance. The biggest concerns are chronic absenteeism and 8th grade reading proficiency; the biggest opportunities are building on the success found in 6th grade math and 8th grade science and carrying those gains into higher grade levels.