Thomasboro Academy

Thomasboro Academy, a K–8 school in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools located in a high-poverty west Charlotte neighborhood, serves 569 students, 99.5% of whom qualified for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024-25. After ranking near the bottom of North Carolina elementary and middle schools for a decade, the school posted its best results in years in 2025-26: its statewide percentile jumped from the 7th to the 13th, it earned its first star rating in years, and proficiency rose sharply in nearly every tested grade and subject, including 5th grade science (24.2% to 43.5%) and 8th grade science (34.8% to 54.5%).

Even with those gains, only Bruns Avenue Elementary ranks lower among nearby schools — a gap that poverty alone does not explain. Schools serving similarly high-poverty populations, including Allenbrook Elementary (64th percentile), Tuckaseegee Elementary (58th), University Park Creative Arts (59th), and Ashley Park PreK-8 School (51st), all post meaningfully stronger results. Attendance is a clear differentiator: 41.6% of students were chronically absent in 2024-25, compared with 26.8% districtwide and just 13.9% at nearby Oaklawn Language Academy. When more than two in five students miss that much school, it is very hard to sustain academic growth.

Beneath the overall ranking, there are encouraging signs. The school's special education students ranked in the 73rd percentile statewide, and its English learners and low-income students now rank in the mid-40s after sitting near the bottom only two years earlier — evidence that recent efforts may be reaching the students who need the most support. Middle school remains the biggest internal challenge: math proficiency declines steadily from 51.3% in 3rd grade to 28.4% in 8th grade, and reading follows a similar pattern. The improvement is real but fragile — one strong year does not erase a decade of low performance, and proficiency rates still trail district averages by roughly 20 to 30 points in most subjects.