Dillard Academy

Dillard Academy is the only school in this Goldsboro, NC area, and it serves grades K through 8 with 261 students enrolled. The school, Dillard Academy, is classified as an elementary school yet includes middle grades; it also operates as its own district, the Dillard Academy district. The student body faces substantial challenges: 95.4% of students are eligible for free/reduced price lunch, and 43.9% were chronically absent in the most recent year, compared to the state rate of 24.2%. With a student-teacher ratio of 19.8:1 and only about 29 students per grade level, small cohort sizes make proficiency rates move sharply from year to year.

Academically, Dillard Academy ranks in the 1st percentile of North Carolina schools for 2025-2026, placing 1,473rd out of 1,492 schools, and its district ranks 237th out of 246 districts statewide. The school's rank history has moved in the wrong direction, falling from the 7th percentile in 2023-2024 to the 3rd percentile in 2024-2025 to the 1st percentile this year. Test scores are well below state averages in nearly every subject and grade, with the widest gaps in 4th grade math (17.2% proficient versus 61.4% statewide), 5th grade math (20.0% versus 62.9%), and 5th grade science (20.0% versus 67.7%).

Reading is a relative strength, especially in the upper grades: 8th grade reading proficiency reached 57.9%, slightly above the state average of 56.1%, and 7th grade reading hit 45.0%, within 11 points of the state rate. However, because one student equals roughly 3 to 4 percentage points of a grade-level proficiency rate, single-year changes can be misleading; for example, 5th grade math dropped from 45.8% to 20.0% in one year, while 8th grade reading climbed from 43.8% to 57.9%. Chronic absenteeism remains a major red flag affecting nearly half of all students, but the stronger middle-grade reading results — and an 8th grade science rate of 52.6% that is closer to the state's 68.6% — offer small signs of promise for students who remain enrolled.