Enfield Middle S.T.E.A.M. Academy

Enfield Middle S.T.E.A.M. Academy is a small, rural public middle school in Enfield, North Carolina, serving 177 students in grades 6–8 as part of Halifax County Schools. After years near the bottom of North Carolina's middle school rankings, the school posted its strongest results in at least a decade in 2025-2026, climbing to the 18th percentile statewide (640th of 778 schools). That rise — from the 1st percentile in 2020-2021 through the 8th percentile in 2024-2025 — places Enfield ahead of five nearby middle schools, including same-district William R. Davie Middle S.T.E.M. Academy, Weldon Middle, J.W. Parker Middle, Phillips Middle, and Rocky Mount Middle.

The school's strongest subject is math: 6th graders posted a 52.7 percent proficiency rate, close to the state's 59.2 percent, and 8th graders reached 55.6 percent — above the 53.0 percent statewide average. Seventh-grade math, however, is a sharp trouble spot at just 19.3 percent proficient. Reading trails the state by roughly 20 points in every grade. Subgroup trends are equally revealing: female, African American, and low-income students have all climbed to the 37th, 40th, and 35th percentiles respectively, while male students remain stuck at the 5th percentile — one of the largest internal achievement gaps in the region.

Chronic absenteeism, while still high at 45.3 percent — nearly double the state's 24.2 percent — has fallen from 66.3 percent in 2020-2021 and is better than Davie Middle (58.4 percent) or J.W. Parker Middle (60.9 percent). Enfield also has an unusually low student-teacher ratio of 9.3 to 1, far below Rocky Mount Middle (20.0) and Red Oak Middle (20.4). Among the high-poverty middle schools surrounding it, Enfield now sits in the upper-middle of the pack — meaningful progress for a school that has historically been near the bottom. The 7th-grade cohort and the persistent male-student gap remain the clearest targets for continued improvement.