Best Public Schools in Zip Code 27406

Zip code 27406 in Greensboro includes 18 schools — 12 elementary, 3 middle, 2 high, and one alternative K-12 charter — serving about 10,573 students across Guilford County Schools and two independent charters. The area is economically challenged: the average free/reduced-price lunch rate is roughly 98.8%, and every school sits above 95%.

That shared poverty does not produce uniform results. Alamance Elementary is the top-rated traditional school, ranking in the 82nd percentile statewide with strong math and science scores despite a 99.4% poverty rate. Brooks Global Elementary is the attendance and achievement outlier, with just 6.9% chronic absenteeism and a 78th-percentile rank. The biggest outlier overall is Triad Math and Science Academy, a charter school that posts 98.9% proficiency on the Math III exam, holds a 93% graduation rate, and tests far above the state in multiple grades. On the other end, Gillespie Park Elementary sits in the bottom 3% of the state, while Allen Middle and Southern Guilford Middle rank in the bottom 20% of middle schools. Southeast Guilford Middle and Southeast Guilford High are the strongest traditional secondary options but remain below the 50th percentile.

Two findings matter most for families. First, chronic absenteeism separates strong schools from weak ones: the strongest performers — Brooks Global Elementary and Alamance Elementary — stay near or below 20%, while the lowest-performing schools, including Allen Middle at 44.6% and Southern Guilford Middle at 40.3%, all exceed 33%. Second, students fall further behind as they advance: average 3rd-grade math proficiency is 61.4% across these elementary schools, close to the state's 66.4%, but 5th-grade math drops to 50.2% versus the state's 62.9%. Trends also diverge noticeably. Southern Guilford High jumped from the 12th to the 34th percentile in two years, while Erwin Montessori fell from the 62nd to the 23rd percentile. And higher spending has not guaranteed better results: Erwin Montessori spends the most in the zip code at $17,956 per pupil yet ranks in the bottom quarter, while top-performing Alamance Elementary and Brooks Global Elementary spend closer to $10,500.