Summary:
Zip code 27511 in Cary, North Carolina, is served by one middle school, East Cary Middle, which enrolls 597 students in grades 6–8 as part of the Wake County Schools district. Since no other middle school shares this zip code, the school is best measured against district and state averages rather than local peers. It has earned a 4-star rating for three consecutive years and ranks in the top 16% of North Carolina middle schools: #123 of 778 in 2025–2026, #115 of 773 in 2024–2025, and #123 of 793 in 2023–2024.
East Cary Middle outperforms its district and the state on nearly every End-of-Grade test in 2025–2026. Reading proficiency is exceptionally consistent: 71.6% in 6th grade, 71.9% in 7th, and 71.1% in 8th — a spread of less than one percentage point and about 15 points above the state average in each grade. Science posts the school's highest rate at 80.6% proficiency in 8th grade, though the district and state both improved sharply this year and narrowed the gap. Math is above the district average in 6th grade (73.6% vs. 69.7%) and 8th grade (67.3% vs. 64.4%), but 7th grade math (65.7%) slipped just below the district average (66.4%) and dropped 2.1 points from the prior year — the one trend worth monitoring.
Contextual measures also look favorable. Chronic absenteeism is 19.4%, better than the district's 20.5% and the state's 24.2%, although one in five students is still chronically absent. With 36.18% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, East Cary Middle serves a significant share of economically disadvantaged students while continuing to beat state averages in nearly every subject. The school operates with a student-teacher ratio of 13.2 and per-pupil spending of $10,391 (2018–2019). Overall, this is a picture of stability: the school is not improving dramatically, but it is not slipping either — making it a consistently reliable, above-average choice for families in the 27511 area.
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