Sherwood Githens Middle

Sherwood Githens Middle is a large public middle school in southwest Durham serving 878 students in grades 6-8 as part of Durham Public Schools, drawing from a high-need attendance area. The school currently ranks at the 42nd percentile among North Carolina middle schools with a 2-star rating — a major improvement from a decade ago, when it sat near the bottom 16th percentile, though it has plateaued below its 3-star standing from the early 2020s.

In reading and math, Sherwood Githens scores close to the district average in most grade levels, and 8th-grade math actually exceeds both district and state averages. The clearest academic weak spot is 8th-grade science, where only 54.5 percent of students are proficient compared to 68.6 percent statewide. Chronic absenteeism is another major concern: 41 percent of students miss enough school to be considered chronically absent, well above the state rate of 24.2 percent and far higher than nearby Rogers-Herr Middle and Lakewood Montessori Middle, both of which serve similarly high-poverty populations yet post dramatically stronger results.

Student outcomes vary widely by subgroup. White students and gifted students score at the 85th and 75th percentiles statewide, and African American students perform near the median at the 50th percentile. However, Hispanic students rank at the 14th percentile, English Language Learners at the 4th, and low-income students at the 20th percentile. Resources matter for context: the school's 17.1-to-1 student-teacher ratio is higher than most neighboring middle schools, and with roughly 99.7 percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, the combination of high poverty, high absenteeism, and weaker science instruction points to the clearest opportunities for improvement.