Schools in Zip Code 28351

ZIP code 28351 in Laurel Hill, North Carolina, is served by two public schools in the Scotland County Schools district — Laurel Hill Elementary (grades PK–5, 662 students) and Carver Middle (grades 6–8, 563 students) — and there is no high school inside the zip code, so its combined 1,225 students leave the area for 9th grade.

Laurel Hill Elementary is the stronger of the two schools: it ranks in the 24th percentile among North Carolina elementary schools, while Carver Middle ranks in the 12th percentile among middle schools, and its average EOG proficiency is about 48 percent compared with 37 percent at Carver Middle. Laurel Hill Elementary's chronic absenteeism rate of 23.8 percent is below the state average of 24.2 percent, whereas Carver Middle's rate of 36.9 percent means more than one in three students is chronically absent. Laurel Hill Elementary also produces the strongest single result in the zip code — 3rd-grade math proficiency of 70.5 percent, above the state average of 66.4 percent — and its math scores overall (about 54 percent proficient) far outpace its reading scores (about 38 percent), which identifies elementary reading as the most urgent instructional need.

Carver Middle faces deeper challenges but shows a notable bright spot: 8th-grade science proficiency jumped from 43.8 percent to 54.7 percent in one year, making science its strongest subject. By contrast, 8th-grade math proficiency is just 28.8 percent, roughly 24 points below the state average of 53 percent — a critical gap because Carver Middle is the last school before students leave the zip code for high school. Both schools serve nearly universal poverty populations (free/reduced lunch rates of 98.6 and 99.5 percent) and both improved their overall EOG averages year over year, yet both remain in the bottom quarter of North Carolina schools within a district ranked 204th of 246 statewide. Overall, families in 28351 should weigh Laurel Hill Elementary's relative strength in math and attendance against Carver Middle's absenteeism and math struggles, with recent improvement at both schools providing some encouragement.