Best Public Schools in Wallace, NC

Wallace, North Carolina, is served by exactly one public school, Wallace Elementary, a PK-8 school with 1,120 students in Duplin County Schools, a district ranked 201st out of 246 in North Carolina. Because it is the city's only school, Wallace Elementary functions as both the area's elementary and middle school, covering grades PK through 8. It is an exceptionally high-poverty school: 99.73% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, so essentially the entire student body is economically disadvantaged.

Academically, achievement is low across nearly every tested grade and subject. Wallace Elementary has ranked in the bottom few percent of North Carolina schools for three straight years and currently earns zero stars. In the most recent year, the school's average proficiency was 32.5% in math, 31.2% in reading, and 35.9% in science, versus state averages of 59.9%, 56.0%, and 68.2%. Only one grade-level subject reached a majority: 3rd-grade math at 54.5% proficiency. The weakest areas are 5th-grade science (22.5% versus the state's 67.7%) and middle-grade math, where 7th-grade math proficiency is just 22.3%.

There are signs of improvement. Year-over-year, the school gained 6.7 points in average math proficiency, 3.7 points in reading, and 1.6 points in science. The largest jumps were in 3rd-grade math (up 16 points), 8th-grade math (up 13.8 points), and 6th-grade math (up 12.3 points). Chronic absenteeism stands at 22.2%, better than the state's 24.2% but above the district's 18.9%. While Wallace Elementary still trails its already low-performing district by roughly 10 points in most subjects, these recent gains and a few relative bright spots — particularly early elementary math and 8th-grade science — suggest slow movement in the right direction.