Summary:
Zip code 28539, which includes the Hubert area of Onslow County, contains just one public elementary school serving grades K–5: Sand Ridge Elementary, a school of 527 students in the Onslow County Schools district. With no other elementary school in the zip code to compare against, all meaningful evaluation is against district and state benchmarks.
Sand Ridge Elementary is generally a strong performer in reading and math, and is often above both district and state averages. Its most impressive results are in 3rd grade math, where 82.7% of students were proficient in the 2025–2026 school year, far outpacing the district’s 60.7% and the state’s 66.4%. The school also posted solid results in 4th grade math and in reading across grades 3–5. However, math proficiency declines sharply by grade level: from 82.7% in 3rd grade to 60.8% in 4th grade and 56.7% in 5th grade, a drop much steeper than the district or state trend. Science performance is less consistent; Sand Ridge beat district and state averages in 5th grade science in 2024–2025 (66.7% vs. 56.6% district and 62.0% state), but fell slightly below both in 2025–2026 (64.4% vs. 67.0% district and 67.7% state).
Notably, Sand Ridge Elementary serves a predominantly economically disadvantaged population, with 62% of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, yet it still outperforms its district and state averages in most subjects—a meaningful positive signal. Its chronic absenteeism rate of 18.8% is also better than the district’s 22.7% and the state’s 24.2%. The school’s state ranking has been volatile: it jumped to a 4-star, 75th-percentile rank of #379 in 2024–2025, then fell back to a 3-star, 60th-percentile rank of #604 in 2025–2026. With a favorable 13.1 student-teacher ratio and per-student spending around $9,194, Sand Ridge is best described as a solid, sometimes outstanding school whose overall quality is best judged over multiple years.
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