Summary:
Sedalia, North Carolina, is home to a single public school — Sedalia Elementary — a PK–5 elementary school in Guilford County Schools serving 535 students. The school is a very high-poverty campus, with nearly 99 percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and it currently earns 2 stars from the state, ranking in the 34th percentile of North Carolina elementary schools.
Despite the challenges tied to poverty, Sedalia Elementary posts a chronic absenteeism rate of 23.3 percent — better than the district's 29.2 percent and slightly better than the state's 24.2 percent, though roughly 1 in 4 students still misses too much school. Academically, the school's strongest work happens in the early grades. In the most recent testing year, 3rd grade math proficiency hit 68.9 percent, above both the district (62.4 percent) and state (66.4 percent), and 4th grade reading reached 58.8 percent, also beating district and state averages. Fourth grade math is likewise above the district average, and the year-over-year trend in 4th grade is encouraging.
The biggest concern is what happens by 5th grade. Current 5th graders at Sedalia Elementary are well below district and state levels in every subject, with math proficiency at only 37.2 percent (versus 62.9 percent statewide), reading at 38.5 percent (versus 55.3 percent), and science at just 39.7 percent — a staggering 28-point gap from the state's 67.7 percent. Scores in 5th grade math fell more than 14 points in one year, and science dropped nearly 12 points. Meanwhile, the school's overall rank slipped from the 42nd percentile in 2024–25 back to the 34th percentile in 2025–26. Parents should know that Sedalia Elementary is a school with genuine early-grade strengths but an urgent need to focus on upper-elementary math and science.
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