Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 28345

Zip code 28345 is served by a single public middle school, Hamlet Middle, which enrolls students in grades 6 through 8 in Hamlet, North Carolina, a small city within Richmond County Schools. Because only one middle school exists in this zip code, there is no basis for comparing local schools against one another, so the most meaningful context comes from measuring Hamlet Middle against its district and the state. Hamlet Middle is a high-poverty school, with a 99.25% free/reduced-price lunch rate, and it serves 399 students. Chronic absenteeism is a major concern — 35.9% of its students were chronically absent in 2024-2025, well above the district rate of 28.0% and the state rate of 24.2%. The school’s reading proficiency is its biggest academic obstacle; in 2025-2026, reading proficiency averaged 45.4%, compared to the state’s 55.7%, and in grades 7 and 8 it fell below both district and state averages. Math is more of a mixed story: 6th grade math students have exceeded the state average in both recent school years, but 7th grade math consistently lags behind, and 8th grade math saw a sharp one-year decline from 65.2% proficiency in 2024-2025 to 51.0% in 2025-2026, dropping below the state average. Despite being a high-poverty school, Hamlet Middle did outperform its district in average math proficiency in both reported years, indicating areas of capability. However, its statewide rank is slipping — from the 47th percentile in 2023-2024, to the 44th in 2024-2025, to the 37th in 2025-2026 — even though its star rating remained at 2 out of 5. Science proficiency also dropped from 61.4% to 54.1% year over year, moving from a strength to a weakness. The most pressing opportunities for improvement are clear: boosting reading proficiency, especially in grades 7 and 8, and reducing chronic absenteeism, both of which could help reverse the school’s downward trend in statewide standing.