Summary:
Schools in Lakeside Charter Academy consist of a single K–8 charter school in Cornelius, NC, serving 221 students with a 14.9 student–teacher ratio. This small school spans kindergarten through 8th grade despite being classified as an elementary school, so families should expect a tightly knit environment where each grade level contains only about 25 students on average.
Lakeside Charter Academy currently ranks in the bottom 2% of North Carolina schools, earning 0 stars for the 2025–26 year. Its most recent test scores are dramatically below state averages: 3rd grade reading proficiency is just 9.1% versus 55.6% statewide, 5th grade math is 27.3% versus 62.9%, and 5th grade science is 36.4% versus 67.7%. However, the school’s ranking history shows extreme volatility—it jumped from the 3rd percentile in 2023–24 to the 37th percentile with 2 stars in 2024–25, then collapsed back to the 2nd percentile. In that stronger 2024–25 year, 3rd grade reading exceeded the state by 15.8 points and 8th grade reading beat the state by 5.8 points, but math was consistently weak, with 6th grade math at only 30.8% proficiency versus 57.2% statewide.
Chronic absenteeism is a serious concern, with 30.7% of students chronically absent compared to 24.2% statewide—roughly one in three students missing enough school to affect learning. The up-and-down performance pattern and small grade cohorts mean that even one or two students can swing proficiency percentages dramatically, making the school’s results unstable from year to year. For example, the 9.1% reading figure might represent only a couple of proficient students in that grade. Math appears to be a persistent weakness across both years, while reading results are inconsistent. Families should know that this school has demonstrated it can approach or exceed state averages in some grades, but sustaining that success has been a challenge. No free/reduced lunch data was reported, and some grade-level scores are missing, so a full comparison to other schools is limited.
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