Summary:
Locust, North Carolina is served by a single middle school, West Stanly Middle School, which enrolls 662 students in grades 6–8 and operates within Stanly County Schools. Because there is only one middle school in this city, the most helpful comparisons are to the district and statewide averages.
West Stanly Middle School stands out as a high-achieving school despite serving a very high-poverty population: 99.55% of students are eligible for free/reduced lunch. In the most recent data, the school outperformed both Stanly County Schools and North Carolina as a whole in every subject and at every grade level. For 2025–2026, average math proficiency was 72.3% versus 56.1% statewide, reading proficiency was 67.1% versus 55.7%, and 8th-grade science proficiency was 81.8% versus 68.6%. Its lowest grade-level scores still beat the state’s highest grade-level averages, indicating strong, consistent performance across grades rather than a single standout cohort. The school’s chronic absenteeism rate is also notably low at 16.4%, compared to 24.2% statewide, which may contribute to its academic success.
The school has clear momentum. West Stanly Middle School improved its state ranking from 199th out of 793 middle schools in 2023–2024 to 131st out of 778 in 2025–2026, moving from the 75th to the 83rd percentile. Major gains include an 17.5-point jump in 8th-grade science proficiency and a 6.7-point rise in average math proficiency. The only notable decline was 8th-grade reading, which fell 6.4 points, though it still exceeds state averages. Keep in mind that year-to-year changes reflect different groups of students, not individual growth. One data caution: per-student spending figures are from 2018–2019, so they should not be used to assess current funding. Overall, this is a resilient, high-performing school whose results are especially remarkable given its poverty level and low absenteeism.
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