Summary:
Zip code 28340 contains exactly one middle school: Fairmont Middle in Fairmont, North Carolina, serving grades 5 through 8 with 253 students as part of the Public Schools of Robeson County. The school ranks 765th out of 778 North Carolina middle schools for 2025–2026, placing it in the 2nd percentile with a 0-star rating, and it has ranked near the bottom of the state for the past three years. Fairmont Middle serves an almost entirely low-income student body, with 98.81% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and more than half of students — 52.6% — were chronically absent in 2024–2025, more than double the 24.2% state average.
Academic proficiency at Fairmont Middle is far below both district and state averages in every subject and grade. Math proficiency is consistently very low, ranging from 11.5% to 13.2% in grades 5 through 7, compared with district-wide proficiency of 34.3% to 45.8% and state averages of 56.2% to 62.9%. Reading shows some growth as students advance, climbing from 13.8% proficiency in 5th grade to 25.8% in 8th grade, but it still trails the state average of roughly 55–56%. Science is the school's relative strength, with 27.6% proficiency in 5th grade and 29.0% in 8th grade, though the state average is near 68%.
Even within a district that itself ranks 190th out of 246 in North Carolina, Fairmont Middle lags well behind. For example, 5th grade math proficiency is 12.1% at the school versus 45.8% district-wide. The school has a relatively low student-to-teacher ratio of 11.9 and per-student spending above $11,000, but those resources have not translated into results. Year-over-year trends are uneven: 7th grade math improved from 7.2% to 13.2%, while 5th grade reading fell from 19.3% to 13.8%. Overall, Fairmont Middle is one of the lowest-performing middle schools in North Carolina, facing severe academic and attendance challenges that point to a need for comprehensive intervention.
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