Tar Heel School, Tar Heel NC - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Tar Heel School

Tar Heel School is a pre-K through grade 8 campus in a very small rural Bladen County town shaped by the dominant Smithfield Foods pork processing plant. The school opened in 2024 as the result of a consolidation of Plain View Primary and Tar Heel Middle, reflecting the district's effort to reduce its physical footprint in the face of declining enrollment across the county.

The town itself is extremely small and spread thinly along Highway 87. Residents own homes in a rural-suburban setting where daily life centers on a handful of houses, churches, and convenience stops, with Smithfield as the overwhelming economic anchor. The area has no traditional downtown; civic services and libraries sit in nearby Elizabethtown. Walking or public transportation are not practical; most errands and activity require driving.

The student body is predominantly low-income. Nearly all students in the school qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment is small, concentrated in the middle grades. The student population is diverse by race and ethnicity: a little more than two-fifths of students are Hispanic, more than a quarter are Black, and smaller shares are White, American Indian/Alaska Native, or multiracial.

Academic proficiency is below the midpoint statewide. In math, about two-fifths of middle-grade students tested in 2024-25 met proficiency standards. In English language arts, about one-third achieved proficiency. Science performance was stronger, with about half proficient, though science assessment comparability data was not available due to recent changes to the state test. No trend data was available to show whether performance is moving or stable.

The data did not report counts or rates for students receiving special education services or for English learners, so a parent may want to look into the school directly about the size and shape of these populations and support services. Information about course offerings, career pathways, clubs, athletics, and after-school programs was not available in the public record.

The 2024 consolidation that created this school was a major institutional change for the community, combining grades that had operated separately and reconfiguring the physical spaces families use. Bladen County Schools has also voted to close other schools in different parts of the county to manage enrollment decline and building costs, a process that continues to reshape access and busing distances across the district.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grades 3-839%

School 39% · District 36% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

English language arts

Grades 3-832%

School 32% · District 36% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Science

Grades 3-849%

School 49% · District 44% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 11 pts below state median

This schoolBladen County Schools, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income46%Higher-income15%31 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income32%Higher-income38%6 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income20%Higher-income42%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income24%Higher-income41%18 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income31%Higher-income36%6 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income42%Higher-income54%12 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income25%Higher-income52%27 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income33%Higher-income54%21 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income17%Higher-income45%28 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income34%Higher-income52%18 pp gap