The Community Learning Center @ Pinckney

The Community Learning Center @ Pinckney is a very small public school in Carthage, NC, serving 77 students in grades 6–12 within Moore County Schools, a district ranked among the top 26 percent in North Carolina. Unlike the district’s comprehensive high schools — Pinecrest High and Union Pines High rank in the 61st–65th percentile statewide — this nontraditional school ranked in the bottom 4% of North Carolina high schools in 2023-24. Its closest regional comparison is Bragg Street Academy, another small 6–12 alternative program with similarly low rankings, very high absenteeism, and per-pupil spending above $20,000.

Academic proficiency is far below district and state averages. In 2025-26, 8th-grade math, reading, and science proficiency each stood at 9.1%, while Moore County Schools averaged between 59% and 83% in those subjects; English II end-of-course proficiency was 13.3% relative to the district’s 73.5%. But chronic absenteeism may be the school’s defining challenge — 74.4% of students were chronically absent in 2024-25 and nearly 80% the year before, compared with a 19.3% district rate. When roughly four in five students miss school at that rate, instruction is severely disrupted, and the small group present for testing may not fairly represent the whole school.

What makes the results most concerning is that the school receives substantial resources. It spends approximately $20,280 per pupil and maintains a 10.9 student-teacher ratio, while North Moore High spends $11,514 with far larger classes — and yet North Moore posts a 93.5% graduation rate and much stronger proficiency despite serving a similar low-income population. The last reported graduation rate here was just 45.8% (2016-17), and recent years show no upward trajectory. In short, this is an alternative school for students who have typically struggled in traditional settings, and evidence suggests the most urgent priorities are attendance, school climate, and re-engaging students rather than additional spending alone.