Best Public Schools in Warsaw, NC

Warsaw, North Carolina, a small town in Duplin County, has two public schools—Warsaw Elementary and James Kenan High—that together serve grades PK through 12 under the Duplin County Schools district, a school system ranked in the bottom fifth of North Carolina districts.

Both schools serve an almost entirely economically disadvantaged student body, with free/reduced lunch rates near 100%. James Kenan High (grades 9–12) is the higher-performing of the two, ranking in the 14th percentile statewide in the most recent year, while Warsaw Elementary (grades PK–8) ranks in the 6th percentile. At the high school, Math III proficiency stands at 56.5%, notably close to the state average of 68.9% and far better than the school’s Math I result of 22.5%. James Kenan also has a lower chronic absenteeism rate (18.8%) than the elementary school (24.5%), though its four-year graduation rate of 79.7% means roughly one in five students does not graduate on time. Warsaw Elementary shows brighter spots in science: 5th grade science proficiency reached 46.2% and 8th grade science jumped to 45.1%, both above district averages, while 3rd grade math led the school at 51.9%.

The biggest concerns appear in the elementary grades. Just 15.4% of Warsaw Elementary 5th graders were proficient in math and 24.4% in reading—dramatic drops from the same school's 4th grade reading score of 44.9%. These swings from grade to grade and year to year suggest inconsistent instruction or major differences between student cohorts, meaning improvement efforts may need to target specific grade levels rather than the whole school. With a district in the bottom fifth and nearly every student facing poverty, both schools face real challenges, but families comparing the two will find James Kenan High relatively stronger in rankings and stability, while Warsaw Elementary offers pockets of solid science instruction alongside urgent needs in upper-elementary math and reading.