Summary
South Elementary is a small PK-5 school in Mebane, NC, serving 235 students as part of Caswell County Schools, and after several difficult years, it has reached the state’s exact middle — ranking 749th out of 1,492 elementary schools (50th percentile) in 2025-2026. That is a dramatic jump from just a year earlier (25th percentile) and from the 2023-2024 school year when it sat in the bottom 7% of all elementary schools. While the school’s demographics show very high economic need (98.7% free/reduced lunch), its low-income students are now performing at the 63rd percentile statewide — better than its overall ranking suggests. This improvement is supported by a huge drop in chronic absenteeism, from 44.3% in 2021-2022 down to 24.3% in 2024-2025, essentially matching the state average of 24.2% and falling well below the Caswell district average of 29.8%. In fact, South Elementary now clearly outperforms its same-district neighbors: Oakwood Elementary (29th percentile) and Stoney Creek Elementary (17th percentile), even though both spend more per student.
South’s standout academic strength is 5th grade science, where 79.3% of students scored proficient in 2025-2026 — above the state average (67.7%) and competitive with the top nearby schools, such as Oak Lane Elementary (78.7%) and Woodland Elementary (77.5%). However, other areas remain uneven. Third grade math is nearly at the state average (64.7% vs. 66.4%), but 4th grade math lags badly at 45.8% vs. 61.4% statewide. Reading is below the state in all tested grades, though the gaps have narrowed. Since the school has only 235 students, a single grade can be just 30-40 children, so year-to-year swings can be dramatic — this likely explains why female students jumped from the 11th to the 53rd percentile in one year while male students fell from the 56th to the 44th percentile.
Compared with high-poverty schools just across the county line in Person County Schools, South Elementary’s results are encouraging but not yet top-tier. Woodland Elementary (85th percentile), Helena Elementary (71st), and Oak Lane Elementary (55th) serve nearly identical poverty levels yet have been more consistent across subjects over multiple years. The big question for South is whether its 2025-2026 improvement — with broad gains in 3rd grade math, 3rd grade reading, and 5th grade science — marks a real turnaround or just a single-year rebound. For parents, the bottom line is that South Elementary is now a solidly middle-of-the-pack school and the best option within Caswell County, but its historical instability and still-low 4th grade math scores are worth watching closely.
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