ALA Monroe

ALA Monroe is a single K-8 school in Monroe, NC, serving 237 students and operating as its own standalone school district, so this data set is best understood as a detailed profile of one campus rather than a comparison between schools. The school earned a 1-star rating and ranks 1,215 out of 1,492 North Carolina schools, placing it in the bottom quintile statewide, while its district, also named ALA Monroe, ranks 214 out of 246 districts. The student-teacher ratio is 18.2 to 1, and EOG results are available for two years in math and reading (grades 3–8) and science (grades 5 and 8).

There is some encouraging news. Overall proficiency rose from 35.9% in 2024-25 to 43.6% in 2025-26, narrowing the gap to the statewide average from roughly 20 points to roughly 16 points. Math improved by 12 points (to 41.9%), and science gained 17 points (to 50.4%), but reading stayed essentially flat at 43.0% — still far short of the state average of 56.0%. The only tested grade and subject at or above the state average is 3rd-grade math, which came in at 68% compared with 66.4% statewide. The weakest results are in 8th-grade math (26.3% vs. 53.0%), 4th-grade math (28.6% vs. 61.4%), and 3rd-grade reading (32.0% vs. 55.6%).

Attendance is a major concern: 44.1% of students are chronically absent, nearly double the state rate of 24.2%. Because the school is small, scores can swing sharply from one year to the next as different cohorts of students move through the grades. For example, 3rd-grade math jumped from 20% to 68% between two different groups of students. Overall, this is a low-performing 1-star school making real but uneven improvements from a very low starting point. Math and science are trending upward, but early-grade reading and chronic absenteeism are the most urgent problems, and the school's strengths are not yet consistent enough to call it a strong school overall.