Southwest Elementary

Southwest Elementary is a midsize pre-K through 5th grade school in Clemmons, North Carolina, serving 546 students within the Winston Salem / Forsyth County Schools district. That district ranks in the bottom half of North Carolina districts, yet Southwest is a clear standout: it ranks 168th of 1,492 elementary schools statewide, placing it in the 89th percentile with a 4-star rating. The school has been reliably strong for nearly a decade, never ranking below the 88th percentile, though it has slipped from the 5-star status it held just a few years ago.

Academically, Southwest beats its district and state averages by wide margins in every subject and grade tested. Roughly 78% of students score proficient on state EOG exams, compared to about 58% for the district and 61% statewide. Science is a particular strength: 91.4% of 5th graders scored proficient in the most recent year, higher than most neighboring schools. In the local landscape, Sherwood Forest Elementary and Lewisville Elementary rank in the 95th–98th percentile, while Clemmons Elementary, Jefferson Elementary, and Vienna Elementary are close comparables in the 86th–94th percentile range. On the other end, Bolton Elementary, Ward Elementary, and South Fork Elementary trail far behind, with average proficiency in the 39–47% range.

Attendance is a hidden strength: chronic absenteeism is 15.6%, far better than the district's 33.6% and the state's 24.2%, though above Sherwood Forest's 5.6%. The school also serves economically disadvantaged students well — that subgroup ranks in the 88th percentile statewide, nearly matching the school's overall standing. However, performance is less consistent across some other student subgroups, and the school's overall rank has drifted from the 97th percentile five years ago to the 89th today. Southwest remains a strong, dependable choice for families, but it is no longer the elite outlier it once was.