Southern Pines Elementary

Southern Pines Elementary serves roughly 600 students in grades PK-5 in the town of Southern Pines, North Carolina, as part of Moore County Schools, a district rated 4 stars by the state.

The school currently sits at the 58th percentile statewide (624th of 1,492 North Carolina elementary schools) with a 3-star rating — a meaningful improvement from the 44th percentile in 2023-24, but still below the district's overall profile. The local neighborhood is highly competitive: nearly every school nearby ranks higher, including Pinehurst Elementary at the 96th percentile, McDeeds Creek Elementary at the 90th percentile, and Carthage Elementary at the 77th percentile. Only Aberdeen Elementary ranks lower. Two factors stand out: nearly all students (99.3%) qualify for free/reduced lunch, and chronic absenteeism runs at 27.0%, well above the district rate of 19.3%. Notably, West Pine Elementary and Carthage serve similarly high-poverty populations yet post significantly stronger results — Carthage and West Pine land at the 77th and 74th percentiles, with higher proficiency in 3rd grade math and 4th grade reading. That gap suggests poverty alone does not explain the difference. Southern Pines does, however, clearly outperform Aberdeen, a school with comparable poverty and worse attendance.

The school also has genuine bright spots. Military-connected students rank #1 statewide, and Hispanic students sit at the 89th percentile, a dramatic climb from the 43rd percentile two years ago. Special education students have improved from the 14th to the 52nd percentile in the same span, and upper-grade reading and math now exceed state averages. The clearest concerns are 3rd grade reading, where only 51.5% of students are proficient versus a 55.6% state average, and 5th grade science, which also trails the state. Given that a quarter of students are chronically absent, attendance and early literacy are the school's biggest opportunities for continued progress.