Burnsville Elementary

Burnsville Elementary is a mid-sized PK-5 school in Burnsville, North Carolina, serving about 350 students as part of Yancey County Schools. The school has experienced a dramatic shift in recent years: it earned a 4-star rating and ranked near the 75th percentile statewide in 2021-22 and 2022-23, but has since fallen to a 1-star rating at the 21st percentile, or 1,177th out of 1,492 elementary schools in North Carolina. Test scores now trail both district and state averages in nearly every subject and grade. Third-grade reading proficiency is 36.1%, compared with 55.6% statewide, and 3rd grade math sits at 42.2% versus the state's 66.4%.

The school's student population has also shifted considerably. In 2024-25, 99.14% of students qualified for free/reduced-price lunch, up sharply from about 71% the previous year. Chronic absenteeism has improved from a pandemic-era high of 43.5% in 2021-22 to 19.6%, but that remains above the district rate of 15.1% and far above South Toe Elementary's 8.7%. Burnsville also carries a relatively high student-teacher ratio of 15.2 to 1, among the highest when compared with nearby schools like Mars Hill Elementary (13.4) and South Toe (12.9).

The most telling comparison is with South Toe Elementary, located only a few miles away in the same district. Both schools serve similarly high-poverty populations, yet South Toe's results are dramatically stronger, including 81.8% proficiency in 3rd grade reading versus Burnsville's 36.1%. Burnsville's subgroup data shows the challenge is schoolwide — nearly every measured group, including English Language Learners, low-income students, and students with disabilities, ranks in the bottom third of North Carolina elementary schools. The hopeful news is that Burnsville has demonstrated it can do better, posting 84.3% proficiency in 3rd grade math as recently as 2022-23. That track record suggests the school has the capacity to reverse its current decline.