Summary
Lewis Chapel Middle is a grades 6–8 school in Fayetteville, NC, enrolling 574 students in the Cumberland County Schools district. The student body is almost entirely economically disadvantaged, with 96.5% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Over the past decade, the school has consistently ranked in the bottom quarter of North Carolina middle schools, placing at the 21st percentile (614th of 778) in the most recent year.
The school's most striking challenge is chronic absenteeism. In 2024–2025, 53.4% of Lewis Chapel students were chronically absent — far above the district rate of 33.7% and the state rate of 24.2% — and that number has grown for four straight years. Nearby comparisons are revealing. Anne Chesnutt Middle, just a quarter-mile away, serves a nearly identical economically disadvantaged population yet posts a 24.3% chronic absenteeism rate and ranks at the 44th percentile statewide. Seventy-First Classical Middle, about two miles away, has just 13.1% chronic absenteeism and ranks at the 88th percentile. Even Hope Mills Middle, with 97.1% economic disadvantage, reports 29.7% chronic absenteeism and a 53rd-percentile rank. These comparisons show that poverty alone does not explain Lewis Chapel's results.
Academically, Lewis Chapel trails both district and state averages in every tested subject and grade. Only 33.3% of 7th graders were proficient in math, for example, versus 56.2% statewide; in 8th-grade reading, 38.4% were proficient compared with 56.1% statewide. Science proficiency, once a strength at 69.7%, has fallen to 55.1%. Still, there are bright spots: 6th- and 7th-grade reading proficiency each rose more than 11 points in one year, English Learner students jumped from the 12th to the 93rd percentile statewide in two years, and special education students reached the 60th percentile. Military-connected students, however, rank at the 6th percentile for three consecutive years. Given that neighboring schools serving similar populations perform far stronger, improvement is clearly achievable.
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