Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 27105

Zip code 27105 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina is served by three middle schools — Mineral Springs Middle (grades 6-8), Paisley Magnet School (grades 6-10), and Lowrance Middle (grades 6-10) — all part of Winston Salem / Forsyth County Schools, a district rated two stars and ranked 159th of 246 in North Carolina. Every school in this area serves a nearly all-low-income student body, with free/reduced-price lunch eligibility ranging from 97.7% at Lowrance to 99.6% at Mineral Springs.

Mineral Springs is the largest school with 702 students and the lowest-ranked, sitting at #755 out of 778 middle schools (bottom 3%) with a zero-star rating for three straight years. Its chronic absenteeism rate is a staggering 55%. Proficiency is very low, but the school did make meaningful one-year gains: 8th grade math proficiency rose from 16.7% to 27.8% and 8th grade science from 24.4% to 34.7%. Paisley is the stronger traditional performer, particularly in reading, averaging 36.0% proficiency across grades 6-8 versus Mineral Springs' 23.1%, yet it still ranks in the bottom 8% statewide. Only 14.1% of Paisley's 8th graders are proficient in math. Paisley's high-school EOC scores above 90% in Biology and English II look impressive but reflect a small, select group of advanced students, not schoolwide test performance.

Lowrance is an outlier: just 129 students, a 6:1 student-teacher ratio, and $29,307 in per-student spending — more than triple Paisley's. It shares an address with Paisley at 1394 Thurmond St and reports no current ranking or test scores, suggesting it operates as a small alternative or specialized placement program rather than a traditional middle school. For parents, the overall picture is consistent: all three schools contend with near-universal poverty, chronic absenteeism well above the state rate of 24.2%, and proficiency far below district and state averages. Paisley is the strongest option for reading, Mineral Springs showed encouraging recent gains but remains in the bottom 3% statewide, and Lowrance lacks sufficient data for a fair academic comparison.