Randolph Middle

Randolph Middle is a large public school in Charlotte, NC, serving 1,215 students in grades 6–8 as part of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. It ranks in the 84th percentile statewide (#125 of 778 North Carolina middle schools), earning 4 stars, and outperforms both its district and the state on every End-of-Grade test in math, reading, and science. Average proficiency across all tests is about 72%, compared with roughly 58% for both CMS and North Carolina overall. The school's strongest area is reading, where it leads district and state averages by about 15 percentage points.

Compared with nearby CMS middle schools, Randolph is a strong performer but not the top option in its immediate area. First Ward Creative Arts Academy and Piedmont Middle School both outrank it, while Crestdale Middle is very close behind. The gap with several nearby high-poverty schools is striking: McClintock Middle (1.5 miles away), Eastway Middle, Albemarle Road Middle, and Martin Luther King Jr. Middle all post average proficiency rates 17 to 40 points lower. Randolph also serves a comparatively moderate-poverty student body, with about 48% of students qualifying for free/reduced-price lunch, and its chronic absenteeism rate of 18.6% is well below the district rate of 26.8%.

The school's equity story is mixed. Randolph ranks in the top decile statewide for African American students and near the top for White and multi-racial students, a strong signal that multiple groups are being served well. However, English Language Learner students rank in only the 30th percentile, and Hispanic student performance has dropped from the 80th to the 57th percentile over three years. The school has also slipped from its former elite status: it was consistently a top-5% school through 2020–2021, but now sits in the top 16%. Chronic absenteeism jumped from 12.8% to 18.6% in the most recent year, an early-warning sign worth watching even as the school remains a solid, above-average choice.