J. C. Roe Academy

J. C. Roe Academy is a very small public school in Wilmington, North Carolina, serving grades 6 through 12 within New Hanover County Schools, with just 14 students enrolled. The school's tiny enrollment, wide grade span, and student-teacher ratio of 1.2 to 1 point to a specialized or alternative setting serving a high-need population rather than a traditional neighborhood high school. Nearby comprehensive schools such as Emsley A Laney High serve more than 2,200 students, making Roe dramatically smaller than any conventional option in the area. While New Hanover County Schools performs reasonably well overall — ranking 84th of 246 districts in North Carolina — J. C. Roe Academy itself ranks 644th of 662 high schools statewide, placing it in the 3rd percentile with a zero-star rating.

Academically, proficiency at J. C. Roe Academy trails district and state averages by roughly 33 to 53 percentage points in every tested subject. Only 7.7% of 8th graders were proficient in math, compared with 60.1% districtwide, and 23.1% were proficient in reading, compared with 59.8% districtwide — the school's highest proficiency rate in any recent subject. Because only 14 students attend, each percentage point represents a fraction of one child, so year-to-year swings can be misleading; still, the pattern has been consistently low for years. The contrast with other district schools is stark: Isaac M Bear Early College High School and SEA-Technical both rank near the top of the state with 5 stars, while even Career Readiness Academy at Mosley PLC, another small alternative-style school, posts an English II proficiency rate of 60.9% compared with Roe's 20.0%.

Perhaps the most important context is attendance. In 2024-2025, 74.2% of students at J. C. Roe Academy were chronically absent — about three times the district rate of 23.8% and the state rate of 24.2%. No nearby school comes close: Career Readiness Academy at Mosley PLC has the next-highest rate at 42.0%, while SEA-Technical sits at just 7.8%. This problem is not new, with rates hovering between 70% and 80% since at least 2019. Notably, the school is well funded, spending about $34,575 per student — roughly four times as much as Emsley A Laney High. That combination of intensive resources and low test scores most likely reflects the complex needs of students who arrive well behind grade level, not a lack of instructional support. Standard state rankings measure grade-level proficiency rather than academic growth, and attendance clearly poses the greatest barrier to learning at this school.