The top reported proficiency rate is 66% in Science. The lowest is 39% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Buies Creek Elementary
Buies Creek Elementary serves the small, university-anchored community of Buies Creek in eastern Harnett County, North Carolina. The school is a small elementary of about two hundred and thirty students across kindergarten through fifth grade, located on Main Street in a place where Campbell University dominates the local economy and civic life. The student body reflects modest diversity, with a slight majority white enrollment and about one-fifth each Black and Hispanic students. More than half the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of economic need across the school.
State testing data from the most recent school year shows the school's academic profile clearly. In mathematics, proficiency among students in grades three through five was below the midpoint. In English language arts, proficiency was notably lower still. The school performed substantially better in science, where a clear majority of tested students demonstrated proficiency. This uneven performance across subjects is worth noting: parents may want to discuss with the school what accounts for the gap between science achievement and performance in reading and math, and what support systems are in place for those areas. The school does not report data on students with disabilities or English learners, so the availability of those services was not visible in the school's public records.
Buies Creek sits within Harnett County Schools, a district that made news recently. In September 2025 the state removed the district from its low-performing designation after gains across multiple assessments and a rise in students meeting UNC college-admission benchmarks. That said, the district still had thirteen schools carrying D grades at the time of that announcement, so performance varies substantially within the district. The county is also experiencing significant growth as a bedroom community for the Raleigh-Durham-Fort Bragg corridor; new housing construction is active, and a new middle school opened in fall 2026 to relieve overcrowding in the central part of the district. For a family moving to or already in the Buies Creek area, this context of district-level improvement and regional growth is relevant.
The community itself is rural and college-centered. Main Street serves a small commercial strip, and beyond that the area is wooded farmland and residential. The median age is very young because of the student population at Campbell. Most residents drive to work; there is limited walkability outside the university campus. The county seat of Lillington lies about five miles west, and Erwin is seven miles away. Local civic life, libraries, and county services center there. Housing is growing with new townhomes and single-family construction marketed to families moving into the area from the Triangle.
Buies Creek Elementary serves a community in transition, where newcomers and longer-term residents share space in a small place anchored by a university. The school's enrollment is stable and modest in size. The gap between science proficiency and performance in reading and math suggests that parents may want to ask the school directly about literacy and numeracy support, intervention programs, and what resources or partnerships it has to strengthen those areas. The school itself carries no state performance grade in the publicly available data, and state testing applies only to grades three and up, so younger students' progress is not measured against state benchmarks. For families evaluating a move to the area, Buies Creek Elementary's small size and community ties are clear; its academic standing and the support available to students below grade three would be worth exploring in conversation with the school directly.
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