Pender County Schools

Pender County Schools serves about 11,000 students across 19 elementary, middle, high, and alternative schools in a coastal and rural region of North Carolina. This is a district of stark contrasts: a handful of schools rank among the best in the state, while several others are near the bottom, often in the same district. Four schools near the Topsail Island area – Topsail High, Topsail Middle, Surf City Middle, and Topsail Annandale Elementary – have relatively low poverty rates (around 20-24% free/reduced lunch) and consistently rank in the top quartile statewide. On the other end, 14 of the district’s 19 schools have free/reduced lunch rates above 97%, and many of those schools struggle. Malpass Corner Elementary is the lowest performing school in the district, ranking in the 5th percentile with only 21.7% of 5th graders reading proficiently.

Importantly, high poverty does not automatically mean low performance. Pender Early College High has a 98.6% free/reduced lunch rate yet ranks in the top 3% of North Carolina high schools, with near-perfect EOC scores in Math III, English II, and Biology. Likewise, North Topsail Elementary (99% FRPL) and South Topsail Elementary (99.5% FRPL) rank in the 91st and 86th percentiles respectively, and both have strong attendance. In contrast, the schools that need the most attention – including C.F. Pope Elementary, Burgaw Middle, West Pender Middle, Heide Trask High, and Pender High – have very low reading and math proficiency. Chronic absenteeism is a clear warning sign: Burgaw Middle and West Pender Middle have absenteeism rates of 40.7% and 35.2%, while the highest-performing elementaries are near 14-15%.

Reading is the district’s most urgent weakness. Gaps appear by 3rd grade and widen through middle school, with reading proficiency below 37% at several schools. Math I (Algebra I) is another major bottleneck, even at higher-performing schools like Topsail High where Math I proficiency is just 57.5% versus 86% in Math III. Science is actually a relative strength in many struggling schools – for example, Cape Fear Elementary has 73.5% 5th-grade science versus 40.2% reading – suggesting a foundation to build on. Encouragingly, graduation rates are a bright spot: district graduation rate is 94.2% versus the state’s 88.8%, and even low-scoring high schools maintain 92% or higher graduation. For parents, the takeaway is that school choice matters enormously in this district. The coastal feeder pattern (Topsail/Surf City) is consistently strong, while western Pender schools face deep challenges, though several high-poverty schools prove that success is possible when attendance is strong and programs are effective.