The top reported proficiency rate is 42% in Math. The lowest is 33% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Selma Middle School
Selma Middle School is a public middle school serving grades six through eight in a rural Johnston County town on the I-95 corridor between Raleigh and points south. The school sits on Highway 301 North in Selma proper, serving a small enrollment that reflects the town's modest size relative to the broader county, which is growing rapidly with suburban spillover from the Raleigh region.
The school's enrollment is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial Black student population and a smaller share of white and Asian students. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating high economic need across the student body. The school is operating within the Johnston County Public Schools system, which in late 2022 and again in 2024 won substantial voter approval for school bonds aimed at expanding capacity and reducing reliance on mobile classrooms district-wide. The most recent bond vote passed with strong support and is funding new school construction across the district.
On state end-of-grade testing, Selma Middle proficiency rates are below the state average. In mathematics, less than half of tested students demonstrated proficiency. In English language arts, proficiency was lower still, with roughly one-third of students meeting the standard. Science testing involved a smaller cohort and showed proficiency in the low-to-mid range. The science assessment itself was redesigned this year, so comparing trends to prior years is not straightforward. While the school's academic results are modest by state standards, context matters: this is a high-poverty school serving a predominantly Hispanic population, a demographic group that nationwide often starts middle school below grade-level norms. A parent may want to look into the school's specific support structures for students working below proficiency, what intervention and acceleration programs are available, and how the school engages families in the learning process.
Selma is a small historic railroad town of roughly five thousand residents with a genuine downtown core built around red-brick sidewalks, antique shops, and locally owned restaurants, though much of the town remains car-dependent. Housing in the zip code is moderately priced relative to state and national benchmarks, with home values somewhat below the state average and rental costs stable. Recent housing development on Selma's outskirts, including new subdivisions and a large mixed-use master plan at the I-95 interchange, reflects Johnston County's status as one of the state's fastest-growing counties. Major employers in and near Selma include food distribution, steel forging, and retail tied to the highway corridor, plus larger county employers in nearby Smithfield and Clayton in healthcare, manufacturing, and logistics.
The district's governance changed notably in 2024, shifting from at-large to single-member residency district elections for the school board, giving neighborhoods direct representation on decisions about growth planning and bond spending. The school's grade band does not report a graduation rate, and no data on the school's special education population, English learner enrollment, chronic absenteeism, or discipline were available. The middle school comparison set is limited because only one middle school in Johnston County served grades six through eight in the most recent data, making it difficult to position this school's performance against local peers.
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