Best Public Schools in Zip Code 27407

Zip code 27407 in Greensboro, NC contains 7 schools in Guilford County Schools: 5 elementary schools, including Guilford eLearning University Prep (grades K–8), and 2 high schools, Ben L. Smith High School and Academy at Smith. Total enrollment is roughly 3,820 students, with school size ranging from 246 to 1,348. Every school in the ZIP is economically disadvantaged — six of seven report free/reduced lunch rates above 98%, and the district overall ranks in the 39th percentile of North Carolina districts.

Academy at Smith is the highest-performing school in the ZIP. Despite a 98.8% poverty rate, it ranks in the 62nd percentile statewide and beats the district and state in every End-of-Course subject, while posting the ZIP’s lowest chronic absenteeism rate at 16.0%. Among elementary schools, Edwin A Alderman Elementary is the standout: 57th percentile statewide with 87.3% 3rd-grade math proficiency despite a 99.2% poverty rate. The most concerning profile belongs to Ben L. Smith High School, ranked in the 21st percentile with 54.1% chronic absenteeism and below-district scores in every subject. Hunter Elementary and Sedgefield Elementary also struggle in the bottom 13% of elementary schools, while Pilot Elementary lands mid-pack in the 38th percentile.

The clear takeaway: high poverty does not automatically mean low performance, as the contrast between Academy at Smith and Ben L. Smith High School demonstrates. Chronic absenteeism affects the entire ZIP, averaging 32.3% versus the district’s 29.2%. Proficiency also trends downward as students advance, with 3rd-grade math averaging roughly 66.1% but falling to 43.4% by 5th grade. Meanwhile, Guilford eLearning University Prep is the hardest school to assess: despite the ZIP’s lowest poverty rate (64.8%) and smallest class sizes (8.9:1), its scores swung dramatically between years, making a single year of results unreliable.