Best Public Schools in Stantonsburg, NC

Stantonsburg, North Carolina, is served by two small public schools—Speight Middle and Stantonsburg Elementary—which together educate about 465 students in grades K-8 under the Wilson County Schools district, in a community where nearly every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. Speight Middle serves grades 6–8 with 281 students, while Stantonsburg Elementary serves grades K–5 with 184 students. Both schools report poverty rates around 98–99%, and there is no high school within Stantonsburg city limits, so 8th graders move on to a high school elsewhere in Wilson County after completing middle school.

Comparing the two schools, Speight Middle is the stronger overall performer. It has earned 3 stars in each of the last three years and ranked 372nd out of 778 North Carolina middle schools in 2025–2026, placing it in the 52nd percentile. Its best results are in 7th grade math (74% proficiency) and 8th grade science (76% proficiency), both above district and state averages. However, its state percentile has slipped from the 61st to the 52nd percentile over three years, a downward trend worth watching. Stantonsburg Elementary, by contrast, carries 2 stars but has steadily improved, rising from the 44th to the 47th percentile since 2023–2024. Its strength is reading, with 4th and 5th grade proficiency above district and state averages, while math is a clear weakness—5th grade math proficiency is just 44%, far below the state average of 62.9%.

Other findings stand out. Speight Middle shows extreme grade-level swings in math—6th grade proficiency fell from 79.3% to 41.9% in one year while 7th grade jumped from 42.9% to 74%—likely reflecting differences between student cohorts rather than true school-wide change. Despite near-universal poverty, both schools post chronic absenteeism around 20%, below the state average of 24.2%. The elementary school also spends about $1,300 more per student than the middle school. Neither school consistently reaches Wilson County Schools' district-wide proficiency averages, suggesting local challenges are more acute than the district as a whole, but both show genuine pockets of strength.