Tryon Elementary

Tryon Elementary is a PK-5 school in Bessemer City, NC, serving 336 students in the Gaston County Schools district, in a community where nearly all students (about 98%) come from low-income households.

In the most recent state rankings, the school placed at the 17th percentile statewide with a 1-star rating, and its end-of-grade test scores trail both district and state averages in nearly every subject and grade. The widest gaps are in 3rd grade, where math proficiency was 43.9% versus 66.4% statewide and reading was 34.1% versus 55.6% statewide. The brighter news is that students seem to gain ground as they move up. Fifth-grade math proficiency reached 54.1%, nearly matching the district average, and 4th grade math, 5th grade reading, and 5th grade science have shown steady improvement over the last few years. Chronic absenteeism has also fallen dramatically — from 38.1% in 2021-2022 to 21.2% in 2024-2025 — putting Tryon below both the district and state averages on that measure.

Compared with nearby schools, Tryon sits in the middle of the local pack. It clearly outperforms Bessemer City Central Elementary and Edward D Sadler Junior Elementary School, which rank in the single digits statewide. But it trails Costner Elementary and W B Beam Intermediate School in most subjects. The most striking comparison comes from just across the county line: schools in the Cleveland County Schools district — including West Elementary, North Elementary, and Washington Elementary — enroll students with nearly identical poverty rates, yet post dramatically higher scores. West Elementary, for example, reached 85.4% proficiency in 3rd grade math and 66.7% in 3rd grade reading, compared with 43.9% and 34.1% at Tryon. Since demographics are essentially the same, those results suggest Tryon has realistic, nearby benchmarks to learn from. The priority now is bringing its upper-grade momentum down into 3rd grade and stabilizing achievement among student subgroups, which has been inconsistent from year to year.