Orrum Middle, Orrum NC - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Orrum Middle

Orrum Middle serves grades five through eight in a very small, rural town in the coastal plain of Robeson County, southeast North Carolina. The school sits on South Creek Road at the rural edge of a town that had only about sixty residents at the last census, in a landscape of low population density and a quiet, agricultural character anchored in farming and manufacturing across the wider county.

The school enrolls about three hundred students, nearly all of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse: roughly a third are Black, a third are split between White and students of two or more races, and roughly a sixth are American Indian or Alaska Native, with a smaller share who are Hispanic. No data on students with individualized education plans or English learners were available.

Academic proficiency across the school is substantially below state benchmarks. On the most recent state End-of-Grade assessments, math proficiency reached roughly a quarter of students, English language arts proficiency about the same, and science proficiency similar. These results reflect serious challenges in foundational skill building across the student population. A parent considering Orrum Middle should recognize that reading and math instruction here are operating in a district context where elementary schools have recently shifted to Science of Reading aligned curriculum with structured literacy training for teachers under North Carolina's Read to Achieve framework, so elementary-to-middle transitions carry that pedagogical approach. For families in the area, a major development affecting secondary and career pathways countywide is the opening in August of a new Robeson Career and Technical Education Center in Pembroke offering programs such as drone technology, culinary arts, mechatronics, welding, EMT, and computer and network engineering, plus a planetarium. This gives students a county-wide technical and career pathway to consider.

The district's financial position is tight. Robeson County schools rank last in North Carolina for local per-student spending and lack a significant tax base. In 2025, the district lost pandemic-era federal funding previously earmarked for major facility upgrades across the school system, which families should factor into their understanding of the resources available here.

Housing values in the Orrum ZIP code area are well below the state average, making the area affordable to families seeking lower-cost rural living. The town itself has been essentially flat to slightly declining over the longer term, and no major new housing development in Orrum was identified. The wider Robeson County economy is anchored in agriculture and food manufacturing, with major employers including poultry and livestock operations. Civic and recreational amenities for residents include Lumber River State Park nearby, with hiking, fishing, and paddling along the Lumber River, and Orrum Middle School itself serves as a local gathering point including for youth sports.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grades 3-827%

School 27% · District 37% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grades 3-824%

School 24% · District 32% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Science

Grades 3-826%

School 26% · District 41% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 34 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

This schoolPublic Schools of Robeson County, 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-income26%Higher-income20%5 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income23%Higher-income21%2 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income15%Higher-income60%46 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income19%Higher-income50%31 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income20%Higher-income38%18 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income34%Higher-income20%14 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income27%Higher-income37%10 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income18%Higher-income65%47 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income12%Higher-income42%30 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income22%Higher-income42%20 pp gap