Best Public Schools in Zip Code 28987

ZIP code 28987 contains just one public school, Southern Pines Elementary, which serves grades PK through 5 in Moore County, North Carolina, meaning families in this area have an elementary option within their ZIP but must look elsewhere for middle and high school. Because there is only one school in this area, this profile focuses on Southern Pines Elementary, a school that stands out for serving an extraordinarily high-poverty student population while still making meaningful academic gains in recent years.

Southern Pines Elementary is an elementary school where 99.33% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, yet it has improved from a 2-star state rating in 2023–2024 to a 3-star rating in both 2024–2025 and 2025–2026. The school now ranks in the 58th percentile of North Carolina elementary schools, up from the 44th percentile two years earlier. In the most recent testing year, the school averaged roughly 62.4% proficient across seven End-of-Grade subject and grade combinations, which is slightly above the state average of about 61.0% but behind the Moore County Schools district average of about 68.1%. The school beat the state average in 4th grade math, 5th grade math, 4th grade reading, and 5th grade reading, while improving in six of seven tested areas from the prior year, including notable jumps of 7.7 points in 4th grade math and 7.2 points in 5th grade math.

The most pressing academic weakness is 3rd grade reading, where only 51.5% of students were proficient in the latest year—11.3 points below the district and 4.1 points below the state. Chronic absenteeism is also a concern, with 27.0% of students chronically absent, which is higher than both the district (19.3%) and state (24.2%) averages. Given that this is the only school in ZIP code 28987 and students must leave the area after 5th grade, the early-grade foundation built here is especially important. Overall, Southern Pines Elementary is a high-poverty school showing real academic momentum, performing near or above state averages in several subjects, with its biggest opportunities for improvement centered on 3rd grade reading and reducing chronic absenteeism.