American Renaissance School

American Renaissance School is a K-8 public charter school in Statesville, North Carolina, serving 823 students. The school operates as its own single-school charter district, American Renaissance School, which ranks 203rd of 246 North Carolina districts. About 51 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student-teacher ratio is 13.7 to 1. The school holds a one-star rating and sits in the 24th percentile of North Carolina schools, a significant decline from its 2015-16 ranking in the 79th percentile with four stars. The slide has been steady since 2020-21, and American Renaissance has now spent two consecutive years in the bottom quarter of the state.

The school's clearest academic weakness is mathematics. Proficiency rates trail state averages at every grade level, and the gap widens sharply in middle school: only 16.7 percent of 8th graders are proficient in math, compared with 53.0 percent statewide, while 7th-grade math sits at 34.5 percent versus 56.2 percent. Reading is closer to state averages but still below them in every grade. Nearby comparisons sharpen the picture. Iredell Charter Academy of Arts & Science, another K-8 charter school with a similar share of low-income students, posts an 8th-grade math proficiency rate of 49.2 percent — roughly triple American Renaissance's rate. Within Iredell-Statesville Schools, high-poverty elementary schools such as Cool Spring Elementary far outpace American Renaissance in elementary math: Cool Spring's 3rd-grade math proficiency is 84.1 percent, versus 36.4 percent.

Chronic absenteeism is another significant concern. At 29.0 percent, American Renaissance's rate is well above the state's 24.2 percent and higher than every nearby school in this comparison, including Cool Spring Elementary at just 5.8 percent and Cloverleaf Elementary at 18.8 percent. Absenteeism has nearly tripled since 2020-21, when it stood at 10.3 percent — a jump that coincides with the school's falling rank. The picture is not uniformly bleak: the school's gifted program ranks 9th of 743 schools statewide, a truly exceptional result. But most other measured subgroups, including low-income, special education, and male students, perform in the bottom quarter of the state. For parents, American Renaissance shows real pockets of excellence, but the broader trends in math, attendance, and overall ranking point to a school in need of renewed focus.