Best Public Schools in Cary, NC

The city of Cary, North Carolina, is served by 33 public and charter schools spanning elementary through high school, enrolling roughly 29,745 students, with the vast majority belonging to Wake County Schools — a district ranked in the top quarter of North Carolina (76th percentile) with a 4-star rating. The breakdown includes 18 elementary schools, 7 middle schools, 7 high schools, and one alternative K-12 charter school, plus a handful of specialty programs such as early college, STEM, virtual, and alternative high schools. Star ratings skew positive: 13 schools earned 5 stars and 11 earned 4 stars, but 7 schools fell to 3 stars or below. Those ratings make clear that Cary is not a single uniform school system.

Cary's standout schools rank among the very best in North Carolina. Davis Drive Elementary (99th percentile), Mills Park Elementary (98th percentile), Highcroft Elementary, and Hortons Creek Elementary all post math and science proficiency rates roughly 20-30 points above state averages. Mills Park Middle is arguably the strongest school in Cary, ranking among the top 8 middle schools in North Carolina for three consecutive years with 93.4% 8th-grade math proficiency; Davis Drive Middle and Alston Ridge Middle are also elite options. At the high school level, Wake STEM Early College High School holds the top rank, while Green Level High is the best traditional comprehensive high school, outpacing Green Hope High and Panther Creek High in most subjects. The Triangle Math and Science Academy, a K-12 charter, also posts extraordinary scores, including 100% 5th-grade science proficiency.

The starkest takeaway for parents is geographic and economic: the highest-performing elementary and middle schools cluster in the 27519 ZIP code of western Cary, where free/reduced-price lunch rates often fall below 10% and chronic absenteeism runs in the single digits. By contrast, schools in central and eastern Cary — including Adams Elementary, Reedy Creek Elementary, and Cary High — show substantially higher poverty rates, lower ratings, and more attendance challenges. Math I proficiency is a district-wide red flag, with only 33.5% of Cary High students testing proficient. Finally, a caution: the same campus can house radically different programs, as with SCORE Academy and Crossroads FLEX at 5651 Dillard Drive, which have nearly opposite demographics and outcomes, reminding parents to look beyond rankings at each school's mission and student population.