Roanoke Rapids City Schools

Roanoke Rapids City Schools is a small, high-poverty district in North Carolina serving about 2,744 students across five schools: two elementary schools (Manning Elementary School and Belmont Elementary School), one middle school (Chaloner Middle School), and two high schools (Roanoke Rapids High School and Roanoke Rapids Early College High). Nearly every student qualifies for free/reduced lunch, with rates above 97% at all schools. The district overall earns a 3-star rating, placing at the 50th percentile of North Carolina districts, but that average masks a huge gap in school performance.

The clearest contrast is between the two high schools, located in the same district with similarly high-poverty populations. Roanoke Rapids Early College High is the district’s standout, earning 4 stars and ranking in the 87th percentile of high schools. Its test proficiency is dramatically above state averages — for example, 100% proficient in Math I and Math III, and nearly 89% in English II. Roanoke Rapids High School, by contrast, is the district’s largest school and its most fragile: it earns 1 star, ranks in the 12th percentile, and posts English II proficiency of just 38.9% versus the state’s 64.6%. Chronic absenteeism tells a similar story: 46.1% of Roanoke Rapids High students are chronically absent, nearly double the state rate, while the early college reported only 10.6%.

In between, Chaloner Middle School is trending upward, improving from the 42nd to 54th percentile over three years and now earning 3 stars. The two elementary schools, Manning Elementary School and Belmont Elementary School, are both rated 2 stars with mixed results: they meet or exceed state averages in 5th-grade math and science, but reading proficiency lags, especially in 3rd and 4th grades. District-wide, reading is the biggest academic weakness. Since only about 4% of students attend the high-performing early college, most district students are in lower-rated schools. The most urgent priorities should be tackling chronic absenteeism at the middle and comprehensive high school, improving early-grade reading, and studying what makes the early college successful in order to help other schools.