Summary:
ZIP code 28461 contains one public middle school, South Brunswick Middle, serving 585 students in grades 6–8 within the Brunswick County Schools district. Because this is the only middle school in the area, parents have no intra-ZIP choice, making this school’s performance especially important for local families.
When compared with district and state averages, South Brunswick Middle shows a clear contrast between strengths and concerns. The school’s brightest area is 8th-grade science, where it outperformed both district and state averages in the most recent year (70.8% proficient vs. 69.7% district and 68.6% state), and it did the same in the prior year. However, 8th-grade math is a major red flag, with only 35.1% of students proficient in 2025–2026, far below the district’s 50.8% and the state’s 53.0%. Overall, the school exceeded state averages in just one of seven tested EOG areas. Its combined proficiency average fell from 56.4% to 52.3% between the two most recent school years, a shift that dropped its state ranking from the 61st percentile (3 stars) to the 41st percentile (2 stars).
Context matters here: the school operates in a high-poverty environment, with 99.49% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch, and chronic absenteeism stands at 28.6%—higher than both the district (24.5%) and state (24.2%). The district itself is ranked #86 of 246 North Carolina districts (65th percentile), meaning South Brunswick Middle currently trails its district’s overall standing. Notably, this was not always the case: in 2024–2025, the school’s average proficiency beat both district and state figures. The recent decline was driven by sharp drops in 8th-grade math (from 51.1% to 35.1%), 8th-grade reading (62.0% to 51.2%), and 6th-grade reading (54.9% to 44.1%). Science remains a consistent instructional strength, and that success may offer lessons worth applying to math and reading improvement efforts.
Thank you for your feedback!