Best Public Schools in Zip Code 27533

Schools in zip code 27533 serve grades kindergarten through eight through a single K-8 school, Dillard Academy, located in Goldsboro, North Carolina. This zip code relies entirely on this one school for elementary and middle grades; there are no separate middle or high schools within 27533. Dillard Academy is part of the Dillard Academy district, which is a single-school district in North Carolina.

Dillard Academy serves a high-need student population, with 95.4% of students eligible for free/reduced lunch and a chronic absenteeism rate of 43.9% — nearly double the state average of 24.2%. The school has 261 students across K-8, giving it an average class size of roughly 29 students. Overall academic performance is well below North Carolina state averages. In the most recent year, average math proficiency was 25.7% vs. the state's 59.9%, reading was 36.7% vs. 56.0%, and science was 36.3% vs. 68.2%. This places the school in the bottom 1% of statewide rankings, a decline from the 7th percentile three years ago. The one clear bright spot is 8th grade reading proficiency at 57.9%, which is above the state's 56.1% and represents a 14.1-point gain over the previous year. By contrast, 5th grade science shows the widest single gap at just 20.0% proficiency, compared to the state's 67.7%.

Because Dillard Academy has only a few dozen students per grade, year-to-year changes can be dramatic and may reflect the particular group of students rather than true progress or decline. The school did improve in both reading and science from the previous year, though state averages also rose. Math proficiency, however, slipped slightly from 28.4% to 25.7%. Despite some academic gains, the school's statewide standing has slipped from the 7th to the 3rd to the 1st percentile, meaning most other North Carolina schools improved faster or remained stronger. For parents considering this school, the most pressing concerns are the very high chronic absenteeism and the large elementary-level gaps in math and science. The encouraging 8th grade reading result suggests that some students do make meaningful progress, but reducing chronic absenteeism remains the clearest opportunity for improving overall outcomes at Dillard Academy.