Union Middle

Union Middle is a grades 6–8 school in Clinton, NC, serving 374 students as part of Sampson County Schools. Its statewide ranking has fallen sharply over time: after sitting near the 40th percentile for many years, Union Middle ranked 707th of 778 North Carolina middle schools in 2025–2026 — the 9th percentile, with a zero-star rating. Nearly all students at Union Middle qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Neighboring schools with many low-income families, however, post far stronger results, so poverty alone does not explain the decline.

The most striking problem is math. Only 7% of Union Middle 8th graders met state math standards in 2025–2026, compared with 34.3% at Roseboro-Salemburg Middle — also in Sampson County Schools — and 38.6% at Sampson Middle, which belongs to Clinton City Schools. Sampson Middle, only about 8.5 miles away and with a nearly identical percentage of low-income students, outpaced Union Middle in 7th grade math as well: 52.5% proficient versus 26.6%. Union Middle reading scores are better, especially in 8th grade, where they nearly match Roseboro-Salemburg Middle, but reading still trails state averages in most grades.

Attendance is another major concern. In 2024–2025, 35.8% of students at Union Middle were chronically absent, up from 19.4% two years earlier and above the Sampson County Schools rate (25.3%) and state rate (24.2%). Roseboro-Salemburg Middle had a similarly high rate (33.6%), while Sampson Middle’s rate was lower (26.0%). The drop in performance is recent and broad, touching nearly every student subgroup, including low-income and gifted students; as recently as 2023–2024, many of those groups performed much closer to the statewide average. English Language Learners at Union Middle currently rank near the state midpoint. Targeted work on attendance and math instruction could plausibly reverse this slide, and the school’s own recent history offers reasons for cautious optimism.