Third Creek Elementary

Third Creek Elementary is a PK-5 school in Statesville, NC, serving 526 students within Iredell-Statesville Schools. The school ranks 1,434 out of 1,492 elementary schools statewide — the 4th percentile with 0 stars — making it one of the lowest-performing elementary schools in North Carolina, a position it has held for three consecutive years.

On 2025-26 End-of-Grade tests, the school's proficiency rates are far below district and state averages. Math proficiency averaged 41.6%, compared to 63.6% statewide; reading proficiency averaged just 29.6%, versus 56.2% statewide; and 5th grade science proficiency was 36.7%, versus 67.7% statewide. Reading is especially weak — in every grade tested, fewer than one in three students scored proficient. Chronic absenteeism is another concern: at 27.6%, the rate is above the district's 19.9% and the state's 24.2%, though it has fallen considerably from 47.1% in 2021-22. Among nearby schools, only N B Mills Elementary ranks lower, at the 1st percentile.

These results are especially striking because high poverty does not tell the whole story. Nearly all of the students (99.24%) qualify for free or reduced-price lunch — yet nearby Cool Spring Elementary serves an equally disadvantaged population (99.33%) and ranks in the 92nd percentile, with roughly 77% of students reading proficiently. The school also has a favorable student-to-teacher ratio of 13.3 to 1, lower than several higher-performing local schools, and per-student spending is comparable to, or higher than, nearby schools. The struggles are broad-based: special education students have seen their statewide ranking fall from the 17th to the 3rd percentile in two years, while English Language Learner students rank at the 24th percentile — a relative bright spot. Between persistent absenteeism and uneven progress across grade levels, the school faces systemic challenges that will require sustained, school-wide effort to turn around.