Stokes County Academy

Stokes County Academy is a very small public school in Lawsonville, NC, serving just 59 students in grades 6 through 12 as part of Stokes County Schools. Nearly all of its students — about 95% — qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school spends roughly $15,262 per student and keeps classes very small, with a student-teacher ratio of about 6.8, yet its academic results have ranked near the bottom of North Carolina for over a decade. In 2025-2026, it placed in the 3rd percentile of high schools statewide and earned a zero-star rating.

Test scores and graduation rates are well below district and state averages. Proficiency on state exams is typically one-third to one-half of what students achieve in surrounding schools; for example, only 14.3% of 7th graders were proficient in math and 20% passed English II in 2025-2026. The four-year graduation rate is 45.7%, compared with 89.3% for Stokes County Schools and 88.8% statewide. Chronic absenteeism is the biggest obstacle: 48.1% of students were chronically absent in 2024-2025, more than double the district rate of 19.1%, after two consecutive years above 66%.

Nearby schools show that far better outcomes are possible. North Stokes High School, about three miles away, has a 90.8% graduation rate and 16.6% chronic absenteeism, while Stokes Early College High School, in the same district, ranks in the 83rd percentile with a four-star rating. High poverty alone does not explain the gap: at East Surry High, more than 99% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the graduation rate is 93.2%. Stokes County Academy may operate more like an alternative or credit-recovery program than a traditional high school, which makes direct comparisons imperfect. Still, the link between attendance and graduation is clear: as chronic absenteeism fell from roughly two-thirds of students to 48.1%, the graduation rate rose from 31% to about 46%. Getting students to school consistently is the most urgent step for improving outcomes.