Summary
Hall-Woodward Elementary serves 532 students in grades PK–5 in Winston Salem, NC, as part of Winston Salem / Forsyth County Schools. It is a high-need school, with 99.4% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school currently ranks in the 9th percentile statewide (1,352 out of 1,492 North Carolina elementary schools), though this represents meaningful improvement from earlier years when it ranked in the bottom 2–8 percentiles. State test results show uneven performance by grade: 4th grade math is close to district and state averages (56.7%), but 5th grade is a serious concern area. For example, only 23.3% of 5th graders are proficient in reading, compared to the state's 55.3%, and 5th grade math dropped from 54.1% proficiency in 2024–2025 to 34.2% in 2025–2026.
Compared to nearby schools, Hall-Woodward sits in the middle of a mixed group of high-poverty schools. It outperforms Petree Elementary, Easton Elementary, and Ashley Academy on several grade-level measures, but is dramatically outperformed by Sedge Garden Elementary, which serves a nearly identical student population with over 99% free/reduced-price lunch yet ranks in the 83rd percentile statewide. Smith Farm Elementary also achieves at much higher levels with similar demographics. This comparison matters because it shows that school-level strategies can make a large difference even under challenging poverty conditions. Chronic absenteeism affects 36% of students, down from 56.8% five years ago but still about 12 percentage points above the state average.
The most urgent concern is special education: the school ranked in the 0th percentile statewide for its special education students in 2025–2026, down from the 24th percentile the year before. There are also notable bright spots — African American students (32nd percentile) and English Language Learners (36th percentile) perform well above the school's overall rank, suggesting certain instructional supports are working. The gender gap is pronounced, with female students at the 18th percentile and male students at just the 5th percentile. The school maintains a favorable student-teacher ratio of 9.9, and per-pupil spending ($9,702) is on the lower end compared to nearby schools that spend over $12,000 and still perform poorly — another sign that spending alone is not the answer. Hall-Woodward is not a hopeless outlier, but a school in recovery that needs consistency, better 5th grade alignment, and targeted supports for its most vulnerable students.
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