The top reported proficiency rate is 50% in Science. The lowest is 31% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Princeville Elementary
Princeville Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Tarboro, an industrial and logistics hub on the Tar River in Edgecombe County. The school enrolls roughly two hundred students, nearly all of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment is predominantly Black, with smaller shares of Hispanic and white students, and no students identified as Asian or Native American.
On the state End-of-Grade assessments for grades three through five in 2024–25, proficiency results were below state expectations. In English language arts, fewer than one-third of tested students met proficiency. In math, proficiency was in the low-to-mid range. Science proficiency, where a smaller group of students was assessed, reached about half. These are straightforward weak results that a parent may want to look into further with the school—understanding what instructional strategies are in place, what support is available to students below grade level, and what the school sees as its priorities for improvement.
The community context is one of rapid growth. Tarboro is in the midst of industrial expansion: Amazon's last-mile distribution center opened in 2025, Natron Energy announced a battery manufacturing facility for the area in 2024, and other logistics and manufacturing employers are active at the Tarboro Commerce Center. This activity is drawing workers and families to the town, creating demand for housing that has prompted downtown apartment renovation projects and a 2023 housing assessment. The for-sale market is modest in price; rents have been stable. The median household income in the wider region is solid, and unemployment is near national norms.
Tarboro itself has a compact, walkable historic district anchored on Main Street, the Town Common, and riverside parks, though the town is car-oriented outside that core. Schools are dispersed on separate campuses, not concentrated downtown. Princeville sits on Walston Street, one of seven Edgecombe County schools in Tarboro. The district is now serving the town under new boundaries: effective July 2024, the Nash–Edgecombe demerger transferred students and schools along county lines, a structural change that affects any family moving from Rocky Mount into Edgecombe County.
The district has made a visible commitment to school safety, installing AI-based weapons detection systems (Evolv Express units) in all schools district-wide, with students walking through scanners at daily arrival. A federal grant awarded in 2024 is funding additional security cameras, shatterproof window film, and security wands.
Enrollment and demographic data were present; English learner and special education enrollment counts were not reported. State test score trends across multiple years were not available, so year-to-year change cannot be assessed. The school website was not available in the data provided.
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