Summary:
The data set covers just one school, Steele Creek Preparatory Academy, a K–8 school in Charlotte, NC, with 335 students and nearly 90% eligible for free/reduced-price lunch. Because this is the only school in the file, there are no neighboring schools to compare it to, so the most useful benchmarks are North Carolina state averages and the school’s own results from year to year. Overall, the school holds a 1-star state rating and has ranked in the bottom 11–16% of all North Carolina schools for the past three years.
Looking at 2025–2026 test results, the school’s biggest concern is elementary math. Only 19.1% of 4th graders and 16.7% of 5th graders scored proficient, compared with state averages of 61.4% and 62.9%. Across all tested grades, average math proficiency is 38.6% versus 59.9% statewide. Reading is stronger, especially in middle school: 6th, 7th, and 8th grade reading proficiency all exceed the state average, with 8th grade at 63.6% versus 56.1% statewide. However, elementary reading lags badly, with 5th grade at 30.6% versus 55.3% statewide. Science is mixed: 8th grade science (68.2%) essentially matches the state (68.6%), but 5th grade science is far behind at 30.6% versus 67.7%. Chronic absenteeism is 29.3%, above the state rate of 24.2%.
One striking pattern is how much proficiency swings from year to year. For 8th graders, math jumped from 5% to 40.9%, reading from 30% to 63.6%, and science from 15% to 68.2% between 2024–2025 and 2025–2026. Meanwhile, 5th grade math and reading fell sharply over the same period. This volatility suggests that individual grade-level cohorts vary a great deal. For parents, the main takeaways are that middle-school reading is a genuine bright spot, 8th grade science is at the state level, and improving elementary math is the clearest priority. The reported student-teacher ratio of 41.8:1 is extremely high and worth verifying, given the school’s size and grade span.
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