The top reported proficiency rate is 36% in Science. The lowest is 26% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on South Robeson Middle School
South Robeson Middle School serves a deeply economically constrained student population in a small rural town along Interstate 95 in southern Robeson County, North Carolina. The school sits in Rowland, a historic but declining tobacco-era mill town where median home values and household income sit well below state levels and the population has contracted over decades. Understanding what this school is requires understanding its community and its test results together.
The student body is nearly entirely low-income. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the enrollment breaks down as follows: just under half Black, about one-third American Indian or Alaska Native, a small share Hispanic, and a very small share white. The school has about the size typical for a middle school serving those three grade bands in a rural district, distributed fairly evenly across sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Specific data on students with IEPs or English learners was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the supports available for those populations.
Academically, South Robeson's state test results are low. In math, about one-third of students scored at proficient or above on the End-of-Grade test. In English language arts, just over one-quarter of students reached proficiency. Science proficiency was in the mid-to-high thirties. These are the most recent state assessment results available; the science test underwent changes in format and scoring standards this year, so trend comparison is not possible. A parent can ask the school whether there are interventions underway or tutoring programs to support students who did not meet grade-level benchmarks, or what their pathway forward looks like.
Rowland itself is a place of ongoing infrastructure repair rather than growth. The town received state funding in 2024 to demolish and rebuild abandoned downtown buildings, and improvements to the historic depot and community park were recently completed. However, the population has been shrinking over the long term, and new housing development is minimal. Interstate 95 runs through town, making commuting to jobs in nearby South Carolina or Lumberton feasible for families, but the town's own economic base is thin. The school system, operating from the constrained local tax base of Robeson County, reported last in North Carolina for per-student local spending and faced a significant setback when pandemic federal funding was canceled mid-project in 2025.
One district-level bright spot: the Public Schools of Robeson County opened a new Career and Technical Education Center in August 2025 in nearby Pembroke, with programs in areas like drone technology, culinary arts, welding, and mechatronics. This gives middle school students a pathway to explore work-based learning as they move toward high school, though South Robeson itself is not a CTE site.
The district has also adopted a structured Science of Reading literacy approach at the elementary level using EL Education and LETRS training. How and whether that pedagogy extends to middle grades would be worth asking about directly.
For families in Rowland with middle-grade students, South Robeson is the neighborhood school. A parent should approach the school with questions about what tutoring and intervention support exists for students below proficiency, what the experience is like for students who may be English learners or need special education services, and how the school connects students to the district's career and technical pathways. The test results signal that many students are not meeting grade-level standards, so clarity on remediation, pacing, and individual support becomes particularly important.
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