Clinton City Schools

Clinton City Schools is a small, high-poverty public district in Clinton, North Carolina, serving 3,015 students across five schools from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. With nearly every student qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, all five schools — Clinton High, Sampson Middle, Sunset Avenue Elementary, Butler Avenue Elementary, and Langdon C Kerr Elementary — face very similar economic circumstances, so differences in results come down to school-level factors rather than poverty levels.

Sampson Middle is the district's strongest ranked school, holding steady with a 2-star rating in the low-to-mid 30th percentile for three straight years, though its 8th-grade math and science scores trail state averages by about 14 and 17 points. Sunset Avenue has proven it can excel: in 2024-2025 its 5th graders posted 73.7% math proficiency, 14 points above the state average, but that figure fell sharply to 56.3% the following year as the school's ranking dropped from the 47th to the 28th percentile. Clinton High is the district's biggest concern, ranking in the 17th percentile with a 1-star rating, an 85.5% graduation rate, and a Math I proficiency rate of just 23.2% — nearly 19 points behind the state average.

Attendance patterns deserve attention starting in the earliest grades. Langdon C Kerr, the PK-K school, has the district's highest chronic absenteeism rate at 30.5%, while Butler Avenue and Sunset Avenue stay near 16-18%. The 27.9% chronic absenteeism at Clinton High is likely connected to its below-average graduation rate. Notably, per-pupil spending is highest at the early elementary schools, yet the largest academic deficits appear in middle and high school. The key takeaway is that early attendance problems may be laying the groundwork for later academic struggles, and students would benefit from additional support in middle-school math and science as well as high-school foundational math.