Durham-Hillsboro-Lehigh

In the Durham-Hillsboro-Lehigh area, two schools serve 596 students: Hillsboro Elementary covers prekindergarten through fifth grade, and Hillsboro Middle/High School serves grades 6–12. The latest results show strengths across both schools, but also a specific weakness in seventh-grade ELA and math. The broadest positive finding is that both schools’ reported all-grades proficiency rates exceeded state rates in ELA, math and science.

Hillsboro Elementary had higher reported all-grades proficiency than Hillsboro Middle/High in ELA (65% versus 49%, a 16-point difference) and math (62% versus 49%, a 13-point difference); science was closer, at 53% versus 52%. Elementary’s rates were 19 points above the state in ELA, 21 in math and 15 in science; Middle/High’s were 4, 8 and 14 points above. At Middle/High, seventh-grade ELA was 2 points below the state and math 1 point below, the only reported grade-subject results below state rates. Standout results include third-grade math at Elementary, 27 points above the state, and 11th-grade science at Middle/High, 26 points above. All-grades school comparisons are not same-grade comparisons because the schools serve different grades.

Year-to-year results were mixed: Elementary rose 1 point in ELA and science but fell 3 in math, while Middle/High edged down in all three subjects. SchoolDigger rankings improved for both: Middle/High moved from 65th of 318 schools to 34th of 340, with its percentile rising from 80th to 90th; Elementary moved from 190th of 653 to 109th of 657, and from the 71st to 83rd percentile. Elementary reports a 12.7 student-teacher ratio and a 44% free/reduced-lunch rate, compared with 11 and 35% at Middle/High. Middle/High also reports a 95% graduation rate, above the state’s 90%.