Summary:
Asheville PEAK Academy is a single K-7 elementary school in Asheville, NC, serving 161 students as its own one-school district, also named Asheville PEAK Academy. Because there is only one school, there are no other local schools to compare it against, so the most useful view comes from looking at performance by grade level and subject over recent years.
The school shows a clear split between upper and lower grades. In the latest testing year, 6th-grade math stood out with 72.7% proficiency, well above the state average of 59.2%, and 7th-grade students matched or exceeded state averages in both math and reading. By contrast, the elementary grades are struggling, especially 3rd-grade reading, where only 20% of students are proficient versus 55.6% statewide, and 5th-grade reading at 27.8% versus 55.3%. Fifth-grade science is also a weak spot at 38.9% proficiency compared to the state’s 67.7%. These gaps mean that while upper-grade students are competitive, the school as a whole currently ranks in the 15th percentile of North Carolina elementary schools, down from the 41st percentile the year before.
The school’s small size makes year-to-year swings especially dramatic. For example, 3rd-grade reading proficiency fell from 50% to 20% in a single year, while 4th-grade math jumped by more than 23 points. Tracking the same cohort from 5th to 6th grade shows strong improvement in math, suggesting some students make late gains, but early literacy remains fragile. Chronic absenteeism is 20.0%, better than the state’s 24.2%, and the student-teacher ratio of 10.4:1 is low, allowing for relatively high-touch instruction. Still, with only 161 students across all grades, test results are easily affected by a handful of students. Parents should view these numbers as a snapshot rather than a definitive verdict, and watch for multiple years of data to see whether the upper-grade success can spread to the lower grades.
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