Triangle Math and Science Academy

Triangle Math and Science Academy is a K-12 charter school in Cary, NC, serving 1,904 students and operating as its own district. Its academic results are exceptional: state test proficiency runs 25 to 40 points above the North Carolina average in nearly every grade and subject. In grades 3-8, math proficiency averages 96.1% (state: 59.9%) and reading averages 91.4% (state: 56.0%). The school also avoids the typical middle-school slump—6th and 7th grade math are 98.3% proficient, and 8th grade math remains at 91.7%.

Woods Charter is TMSA's closest local peer, yet TMSA leads it by about 13 points in 3-8 math and 5.5 points in reading. Durham Charter School posts solid but lower results (73.7% math, 61.6% reading). Remote academies lag far behind: Pine Springs Preparatory Remote Academy manages only 10.7–22.8% math proficiency, while North Carolina Cyber Academy averages 38.4%—versus TMSA's 96.1%. High school end-of-course scores are equally dominant: Biology 90.9%, English II 92.6%, and Math III 97.3%. Math I (73.9%) is the one relative weak spot, but it still clears the state average by roughly 32 points.

TMSA's graduation rate of 94.8% is the highest among nearby schools listed, and its chronic absenteeism rate of 11.7% is under half the statewide figure of 24.2%. These results are especially notable because TMSA is no small academy: at 1,904 students, it is far larger than Woods Charter (515) or Durham Charter School (1,010), and its student-teacher ratio of 16.2 to 1 is not especially low—this is not a small-school effect. The school has also kept improving since 2022-23: 8th-grade math jumped from 69.5% to 91.7%, and 5th-grade science reached 100%. Since the nearby comparison set is dominated by charter, virtual, and remote academies rather than traditional neighborhood public schools, families should weigh those options accordingly. Among every school in that group, TMSA is the strongest performer by a wide margin.