Cranberry Middle

Cranberry Middle is a small rural middle school in Elk Park, North Carolina, serving grades 6 through 8 with 202 students as part of Avery County Schools. Despite roughly 96% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, the school ranks 163rd out of 778 North Carolina middle schools for 2025–2026 — landing in the 79th percentile with a 4-star rating. That puts it far ahead of nearby peer schools: Avery Middle and Mitchell Middle rank in just the 31st and 30th percentiles, respectively.

Cranberry’s academic standout is math. On 2025–2026 state End-of-Grade tests, 91.3% of 6th graders and 83.6% of 7th graders met proficiency, compared with state averages of 59.2% and 56.2%. In 8th-grade math, 63.5% of students were proficient — nearly four times the rate at Avery Middle (16.7%). Reading also exceeds district and state averages in every grade level, and 8th-grade science proficiency reached 73%. The school is especially effective with high-need students: economically disadvantaged students rank in the 82nd percentile statewide, and special education students ranked in the 97th percentile in 2023–2024, an exceptional result.

The biggest concern is attendance. Chronic absenteeism jumped to 36.4% in 2024–2025, well above the state average of 24.2% and more than double the rate at Mitchell Middle (17.1%). Because the school is small, test scores can swing meaningfully from year to year, so single-year changes should be read carefully. Still, Cranberry has remained consistently strong, never falling below the 71st percentile since 2019, and it improved from the 71st to the 79th percentile this past year. Overall, it is a clear example of a high-poverty school delivering well above what its demographics would typically predict — though improving attendance would likely unlock even stronger results.