The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in Science. The lowest is 24% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Saint Pauls Elementary
Saint Pauls Elementary serves about seven hundred students in pre-K through fourth grade in the rural textile-heritage town of Saint Pauls, Robeson County, North Carolina. The school sits on Martin Luther King Drive, away from the modest downtown, in a community where the vast majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and where the student body reflects the demographic makeup of the county: roughly half Hispanic, with substantial shares of Black, American Indian, and White students, though specific enrollment counts for special education and English learners were not available.
On state testing, the school's proficiency rates in math and English language arts are low. Among students in grades three through four tested in the 2024-25 school year, roughly one-third met proficiency in math and roughly one-quarter in English language arts. Science data from an earlier assessment cycle showed stronger results, though state testing protocols have since shifted. State assessment data from earlier years that might show trend direction was not available, so a parent cannot yet see whether these numbers are improving, flat, or declining. These results indicate that many students are not meeting grade-level benchmarks in foundational reading and math skills, a pattern worth discussing directly with school leadership to understand what interventions and support structures the school has in place and what timeline families should expect to see progress.
The district has adopted a structured literacy approach through the Science of Reading framework, with EL Education curriculum for K-5 literacy and Eureka Math Squared for mathematics, alongside LETRS professional development for teachers under North Carolina's Read to Achieve mandate. That pedagogy is now the foundation at Saint Pauls Elementary, meaning the school is working from a coherent, literacy-focused instructional model that the district has chosen to scale across all elementary buildings.
Housing in Saint Pauls is affordable by state and national standards, with median home prices substantially below both the North Carolina and national benchmarks. Mortgage costs are low, and rent-to-income ratios are manageable. The town is car-dependent; there is no public transit. The local economy centers on manufacturing jobs (Watts Water Technologies and Prestage Farms are major employers), agriculture, and commercial development near Interstate 95. After the collapse of the textile mills in the 1990s, job growth has been modest and uneven, with the population essentially stable over recent years and employment showing slight decline. The town anchors itself through churches, a farmers market, vendor fairs, and antique car drive-ins, with civic institutions and parks serving residents' recreational needs.
At the district level, two developments bear on families' choice and planning. In summer 2025, Public Schools of Robeson County is opening a new Career and Technical Education Center in nearby Pembroke, replacing the old career center and adding programs in drone technology, culinary arts, mechatronics, welding, EMT, and computer networking, along with a new planetarium and science center. This is the district's first major from-the-ground-up facility in over a decade and creates a county-wide CTE pathway that families with students in middle and high school would weigh. In 2025, the district lost federal pandemic-relief funding for planned facility upgrades—replacing HVAC at Lumberton High, adding classrooms at two other high schools, and replacing windows at three elementary schools—forcing it to reallocate its own budget to cover contracted work already underway. The district ranks last in North Carolina for local per-student spending, a reflection of the county's limited tax base, and constrained resources are a reality families should understand as they evaluate long-term facility and program investment in the district.
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