Summary:
Matthews Charter Academy is a K–8 charter school in Matthews, North Carolina, serving 771 students, and it is the only school in the Matthews Charter Academy district. This school stands out for its strong upward momentum, rising from the 56th percentile in the 2023-2024 school year to the 73rd percentile in 2025-2026 and now holding a 4-star rating. Overall, it outperforms the state average in both math and reading, with an average math proficiency of 67.9% versus the state’s 59.9% and reading at 61.8% versus 56.0% for the most recent school year.
The school’s biggest strengths appear in early grades and mathematics. Third-grade math proficiency reached 85.4%, which is 19 points above the state average, and third-grade reading also led by 16.4 points. Fourth-grade reading is similarly strong, with a 15.8-point advantage. Middle-school math is another bright spot, with sixth and seventh grade scoring more than 10 points above the state in the latest year. Even with 57.46% of students receiving free or reduced lunch, the school continues to beat state averages, and its chronic absenteeism rate of 16.8% is much lower than the state’s 24.2%. These results are especially notable given a relatively high student-teacher ratio of 22.3.
The most consistent challenges are fifth-grade reading and eighth-grade science. Fifth-grade reading remained below the state average in both 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, and eighth-grade science trailed by a similar margin each year. However, the school showed a striking 25-point improvement in fifth-grade math from one year to the next, and reading gaps in fifth and sixth grade are small, suggesting targeted help could close them quickly. For parents, Matthews Charter Academy offers a well-rounded education with a clear trajectory of improvement, a strong math foundation, and excellent early-grade instruction, while middle-school science and late-elementary reading are worth watching as areas for future focus.
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