The top reported proficiency rate is 42% in Math. The lowest is 32% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Plain View Primary
Plain View Primary, located in rural Tar Heel in Bladen County, closed in 2024 as part of a district consolidation. The school served middle grades and sat on Chicken Foot Road in a landscape defined by agricultural and industrial activity, with the Smithfield Foods pork processing facility—the world's largest—dominating the regional economy just north of town. The community itself is very small, with a handful of residents and minimal walkable infrastructure; daily life centers on the processing plant and surrounding timber and row-crop operations.
Before its closure, Plain View Primary's academic profile showed below-average performance on state assessments. In the most recent year for which data is available, proficiency rates in English language arts and math both fell well below the state standard. Reading results were particularly weak, with less than a third of students reaching proficiency. Math results were somewhat stronger but still below the midpoint of typical performance statewide. The school tested about sixty-six students across grades three through eight, with approximately a quarter reaching proficiency in math and fewer in reading. State assessment data does not include average scale scores or participation rates; enrollment, demographic, and special-population detail was also not available from the state reporting.
The consolidation that closed Plain View Primary merged it with Tar Heel Middle School into a single pre-K through eighth-grade campus called Tar Heel School in 2024. This change reflects enrollment decline and the district's effort to reduce its physical footprint and operating costs. For families in the Tar Heel area, the consolidation means a shift to the new combined facility with altered grade configurations and building assignments. Bladen County Schools overall has faced similar pressures: in March 2026, the district voted to close East Arcadia School in Riegelwood and consolidate that school's students with Clarkton School of Discovery roughly twenty-three miles away, a move driven by further enrollment loss and significant facility needs.
Tar Heel itself is a rural community with little residential growth and few civic anchors beyond churches and volunteer fire protection. The economy is overwhelmingly tied to Smithfield; in 2023, the company announced plans to consolidate production from its Charlotte facility into the Tar Heel plant, concentrating industrial activity and employment at the site. The town provides basic services—street maintenance, water supply through a local water corporation—while police and library services are county-based in nearby Elizabethtown. Parks and recreation, such as Jones Lake and Singletary Lake State Parks, anchor outdoor life at the county level.
Plain View Primary is no longer in operation. Families with students in that grade band now attend the consolidated Tar Heel School.
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