Movement Freedom

Schools in Movement Freedom consist of a single school, Movement Charter School, which serves grades K–8 and operates in a deeply challenged area where 99.52% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch and chronic absenteeism runs at 45.3% — nearly double the statewide average. With 625 students and a 17:1 student-teacher ratio, this is a high-poverty school with no direct district peers, so the most meaningful comparisons are against North Carolina state averages and its own year-over-year trends.

Movement Charter School has experienced dramatic swings in performance. It ranked in the 46th percentile statewide in 2023–2024, cratered to the bottom 4th percentile in 2024–2025, and rebounded to the 14th percentile in 2025–2026, earning 2, 0, and 1 stars respectively. The most recent year shows real pockets of strength, particularly in 8th grade: science proficiency reached 85.7% versus the state’s 68.6%, and reading hit 57.1% versus 56.1%. But the same year saw 4th-grade math at only 25% and 5th-grade math at 21.2%, both far below state averages near 61–63%. This polarized pattern means the school is not uniformly low-performing; rather, certain grades and subjects shine while others struggle badly.

One of the most hopeful signs is the extraordinary jump in 3rd-grade math, which rose from 36.6% proficiency in 2024–2025 to 75.0% in 2025–2026, surpassing the state average of 66.4%. Third-grade reading also improved, as did 5th-grade and 8th-grade science. However, no 6th-grade scores were reported in either year, and no 7th-grade scores appeared in 2025–2026, making it hard to know whether middle-school strength is consistent or isolated to 8th grade. The combination of extreme poverty, chronic absenteeism, and volatile rankings suggests the school remains fragile, but the broad rebound from a near-crisis 2024–2025 year—including a sharp rise in several subjects—indicates that Movement Charter School may be on a recovery path even as it continues to face major obstacles.