Creekside Elementary

Creekside Elementary serves 453 students in grades K–5 in New Bern, NC, and is one of the highest-performing elementary schools in the Craven County Board of Education district. The school earned a 5-star rating and ranks 108th out of 1,492 North Carolina elementary schools for 2025-2026, putting it in the 93rd percentile statewide. Its closest comparable peer is W Jesse Gurganus Elementary at 120th, while other nearby schools fall much further behind: Albert H Bangert Elementary ranks 273rd, and Oaks Road Academy sits near the very bottom of the state rankings.

Academically, Creekside outperforms both district and state averages in every subject and grade tested. In 5th grade, 90% of students are proficient in math and 93.3% in science, compared with state averages near 63% and 68%. Reading proficiency ranges from roughly 70% to 77% across grades 3–5, while the district average hovers near 50%. Creekside even leads its strongest nearby competitor, W Jesse Gurganus Elementary, in 5th-grade math, reading, and science. The school also has excellent attendance: chronic absenteeism is just 7.6% — down sharply from 17.1% in 2021-2022 — and far below the district rate of 18.7%.

Creekside is especially effective with students who historically face achievement gaps. Economically disadvantaged students rank in the 97th percentile statewide, and Hispanic students rank in the 95th percentile. Families may also want to know that the school's gifted and talented students have had uneven statewide rankings in recent years, including a difficult 7th-percentile year in 2023-2024, and that the African American student subgroup ranking has declined from the 86th percentile in 2018-2019 to the 67th percentile in 2024-2025. Still, with a favorable 14.3:1 student-teacher ratio, a decade of consistent top-tier performance, and a lower per-student spending level than several neighboring schools, Creekside clearly delivers strong results with a stable and effective approach.