Wayne Middle / High Academy

Wayne Middle / High Academy is a very small public school in Goldsboro, NC, serving just 92 students across grades 6–12 and belonging to Wayne County Public Schools. The school has ranked in the bottom 4% of North Carolina high schools for multiple years, earning 0 out of 5 stars, and nearly all of its students (96.7%) qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

Academic proficiency at the school runs far below district and state averages. On the most recent tests, only 8.3% of students were proficient in Biology, 9.1% in Math III, and 10.5% in both 6th-grade reading and math—gaps of 40 to 60 percentage points behind the district. Every measured student subgroup ranks in the bottom few percent statewide, so this is a schoolwide challenge. Nearby schools tell a different story. Eastern Wayne High sits just 0.05 miles away on the same campus yet posted a Biology proficiency rate of 66.5% versus the Academy's 8.3%. Wayne School of Engineering and Wayne School of Technical Arts serve the same middle/high grade span and have similar poverty rates (99.4% and 97.8%), yet they rank in the 80th–85th percentile statewide.

Attendance is perhaps the most urgent issue: 74.4% of students were chronically absent in 2024–2025, meaning roughly 3 out of 4 students missed enough school to seriously jeopardize their learning. That rate has risen steadily from 58.5% in 2021–2022, even as the district rate fell from 44.3% to 31.6%. Notably, the school spends more per student ($17,211) than nearby Eastern Wayne High ($9,800) and has a lower student-to-teacher ratio, so its challenges are not about a lack of resources—and poverty alone does not explain the results, given the success of other high-poverty schools in the same district. Parents should weigh the very low academic proficiency beginning in middle school and the severe, worsening attendance problems when considering this school.