Aversboro Elementary

Aversboro Elementary is a PK–5 school in Garner, NC, serving 381 students as part of the Wake County Schools district, which overall performs well across the state. Aversboro, however, stands out as an academic outlier: it currently ranks in the 11th percentile of North Carolina elementary schools with a 1-star rating, and it has spent most of the past decade in the bottom 15% of schools statewide. The school also serves an overwhelmingly economically disadvantaged population, with 99.21% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch in the most recent school year.

Academically, proficiency rates on state EOG tests lag well behind both the district and state averages in nearly every subject and grade. The gaps widen as students move through the school: 5th-grade math proficiency is just 29.5%, compared with roughly 72% across Wake County and 63% statewide. Reading proficiency in grades 3 through 5 hovers in the mid-to-upper 30s, about 20 to 30 points below county averages. 5th-grade science results show just 47.5% proficiency versus 73.5% for the district. On a more positive note, the school has made real progress in attendance: chronic absenteeism dropped from 42.2% in 2021–22 to 22.3% in 2024–25, which is now below the state average and close to the Wake County average.

Demographics alone do not tell the full story. Nearby Creech Road Elementary, about 2 miles away, also serves a nearly 100% free/reduced-lunch population yet ranks in the 46th percentile, while Vandora Springs Elementary, just 1 mile away with similar poverty levels, ranks in the 48th percentile. These comparable schools post meaningfully better proficiency results in reading and science, suggesting targeted instructional support could make a difference. The clearest strength at Aversboro lies with English Language Learner students, who ranked in the 44th percentile statewide — far above the school’s other subgroup results. For parents, the essential takeaway is that Aversboro faces real academic challenges, especially in upper-elementary math and reading, though improved attendance and relative success with ELL students offer bright spots to build upon.