Summary
Southeast Raleigh Elementary is a Pre-K–5 school in Raleigh, NC, serving 378 students within the Wake County Schools district, a system ranked in the 76th percentile statewide. In the heart of Southeast Raleigh, the school serves a highly economically disadvantaged population, with 99.2% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024-25. Historically, test scores have ranked near the bottom of North Carolina elementary schools, but the most recent 2025-26 data show a meaningful upward shift from the 8th to the 21st percentile—one of the largest jumps in recent years.
Reading proficiency remains the school's biggest challenge. In 2025-26, third-grade reading reached 37.2% proficiency, while fifth-grade reading stood at 33.9%, roughly half the district's rate. Math is closer to state averages: fifth-grade math climbed from 37.0% to 57.6% proficiency in a single year. Encouragingly, gains were broad-based across grade levels and subjects. Among demographically similar high-poverty neighbors such as Bugg Elementary and Walnut Creek Elementary, Southeast Raleigh is performing relatively well; its 57.6% fifth-grade math proficiency outpaces Bugg's 49.0% and Walnut Creek's 36.8%. The picture differs sharply at lower-poverty nearby schools like Hunter Elementary and Washington Elementary, which rank well above the state median. Chronic absenteeism, at 32.0% versus 20.5% districtwide, remains a major hurdle.
The school's own subgroup data complicate any simple label. African American and Hispanic students rank around the statewide median for those subgroups, and low-income students jumped from the 12th to the 34th percentile in the latest year. Male students, English learners, and the gifted-and-talented population, however, remain areas of concern. With a student-teacher ratio of 12.9, comparable to local higher-performing schools, staffing is not the main barrier. The school's recent shift from a 0-star to a 1-star designation signals progress, and its broad-based academic gains suggest a potential turnaround. Sustaining that momentum, especially in reading, will determine the school's trajectory in the coming years.
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