The top reported proficiency rate is 72% in Math. The lowest is 61% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Highfalls Elementary
Highfalls Elementary is a small, rural K-8 school serving Bennett, a quiet country community in southwestern Chatham County near the Randolph County line. The school enrolls a small body of students in grades kindergarten through eighth, with a stable, mixed-income student population. Most students are white; a smaller share identify as Hispanic or other backgrounds. About half the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting modest household incomes in the area.
Bennett itself is not a growth area. It is a very small census-designated place of mostly farmland interspersed with residential properties and a handful of small businesses—a hardware store, garage, grill, post office, grocery—clustered near the school along NC Highways 22 and 42. The economy is anchored by agriculture, small commerce, and the Southern Supreme Fruitcake factory in nearby Bear Creek; most residents who work outside the home commute to surrounding towns. Housing is affordable relative to state benchmarks, and most residents own their homes. The school sits at the heart of the community rather than on a separated campus, and the Flatwoods Festival and Christmas parade are the main community gatherings.
On state end-of-grade tests, Highfalls shows uneven results. In math, about seven in ten students tested scored proficient or above. In English language arts, the proficiency rate was lower, at about six in ten. In science, the proficiency rate was also about six in ten, though this assessment changed format and scoring criteria that year, so trend comparison is not reliable. The school was tested in science for only a small subset of its sixth- through eighth-grade enrollment; the broader population takes earlier science assessment in other grades. The tests cover grades three through eight.
The school has limited offerings data in the available records. Enrollment data show the school does serve a full span of grades kindergarten through eight, with the majority of grades holding enrollments in the low-to-mid range for a rural elementary setting. Special education enrollment and English learner status are not reported in available data, a gap common for smaller schools. Attendance and discipline metrics were not provided. The school's website was not accessible to researchers.
Highfalls sits within Moore County Schools, a four-district county system that has been investing in infrastructure. The district opened three brand-new K-5 elementary schools in the southern part of the county between 2020 and 2021, financed by a successful bond; one of those schools earned state Blue Ribbon recognition. The district also opened Moore Innovative High School in Fall 2025 on the Sandhills Community College campus, a new tuition-free pathway into skilled trades and dual-credit college work. The district imposes a quarter-cent local sales tax dedicated to school construction, which shifts part of the facility cost load from property tax to sales tax. A new Carthage Elementary is planned, with a bond referendum scheduled for November 2026. For families in Highfalls' rural corner of the county, these district initiatives have less immediate bearing than they do for families closer to the growth areas of Pinehurst and Southern Pines, but the district's overall trajectory is toward modernized facilities and expanded career pathways.
Highfalls serves a real community—stable, small-town, and tight-knit. For families who value a rural setting, small-school environment, and deep local rootedness, the school's integration into Bennett life is genuine. The academic results show room for growth, particularly in reading and science. Parents may want to look into the school's approaches to literacy and science instruction, staffing stability, and support offerings to understand what drives the gaps between math and language arts. The school's limited publicly available data makes deeper investigation with the school directly important for families considering enrollment.
See more original research from School Decision →