Northern Guilford High

Northern Guilford High is a traditional public high school in Greensboro, NC, serving about 1,251 students in grades 9–12 as part of Guilford County Schools. The school is a solidly above-average performer, ranking in the 70th percentile of North Carolina high schools with a 4-star SchoolDigger rating. It was once even stronger: between 2015–2016 and 2017–2018, Northern Guilford ranked among the top 10% of high schools statewide and earned a 5-star rating. Since then, it has settled into the 69th–72nd percentile range before showing recent signs of a rebound.

Academically, Northern Guilford has clear strengths and one persistent gap. Students score well above state averages in English II (82.8% proficient) and Math III (86.5% proficient), but Math I is a real concern, with just 39.2% proficient—slightly below the state average of 42.1%. That weakness is especially visible when Northern Guilford is compared with nearby Northwest Guilford High, which has a similar enrollment size, similarly low chronic absenteeism, and even fewer students from low-income households. That school posts a 59.8% Math I proficiency rate and also leads in Biology (87.8% vs. 64.9%), helping it rank roughly 10 percentile points higher statewide.

Where Northern Guilford shines is in school climate and student supports. Its chronic absenteeism rate is just 15.2%—dramatically better than the Guilford County Schools average of 29.2%—and its 94.1% graduation rate is well above the state’s 86.9%. Subgroup results are solid too: English learners rank in the 68th percentile statewide for that group after sitting at just the 22nd percentile two years earlier, and special education and military-connected students also score in the low-to-mid 70s percentile range. The clear exception is gifted and talented students, who rank in the 36th percentile relative to gifted students statewide—an important question for parents of high-achieving learners.