Best Public Schools in Pollocksville, NC

The city of Pollocksville, North Carolina, has just one school: Pollocksville Elementary, a Pre-K–5 school with about 120 students in Jones County Schools. Because Pollocksville Elementary is the only school in the city, there are no middle or high schools here, so most students will transition to schools outside Pollocksville after 5th grade. The school serves an almost entirely low-income population, with 97.5% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

Despite that challenge, the school posts several strong results in core subjects. In the 2025–2026 school year, 4th graders at Pollocksville Elementary scored exceptionally well: 83.3% were proficient in math and 83.3% in reading, outpacing state averages of 61.4% and 57.7% by wide margins. The current 4th graders had also shown strong reading growth as 3rd graders a year earlier, when their reading proficiency was 61.5% before jumping to 83.3%. Third-grade math also beat the state average, and overall math and reading proficiency at the school tends to be above North Carolina’s averages. The school’s 4th grade reading proficiency in particular is a standout strength.

However, performance is not uniformly strong. Fifth grade is the school’s trouble spot: in 2025–2026, only 38.9% of 5th graders were proficient in science, compared to 67.7% statewide, and 5th grade math dropped to 50.0% from 71.4% the year before. One warning sign is that 3rd grade reading dipped to 50.0% in 2025–2026, slightly below the state average of 55.6%. That pattern suggests students may experience an academic drop-off in the upper elementary grades. The school’s state ranking reflects the mixed picture: it has fallen from the 70th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 52nd percentile in 2025–2026. Because each grade has roughly 20–25 students, a change of just a few students can move proficiency rates by several points, so year-to-year swings should be interpreted cautiously. Chronic absenteeism is 23.3%, slightly better than the district and state averages, but still means about one in four students misses too much school.