Summary:
Zip code 27513 in Cary, North Carolina is home to two public middle schools — West Cary Middle and Reedy Creek Middle — both serving grades 6 through 8 within Wake County Schools, a district ranked 60th among North Carolina's 246 districts. These neighboring schools share the same community and grade span, but they offer quite different academic profiles for families to consider.
West Cary Middle is the clear academic standout, ranking 78th out of 778 North Carolina middle schools for 2025–26 with a 5-star rating and 90th-percentile placement. It outperforms Reedy Creek Middle on every subject and grade level, with its 8th-grade science proficiency rate of 88.3% sitting roughly 12 points above the district average and nearly 20 points above the state. Reedy Creek Middle, meanwhile, is a solidly rated 4-star school at 230th in the state, but it has slipped from the 80th to the 70th percentile over three years while West Cary has stayed stably in the top 10% statewide.
Reedy Creek actually spends more per student ($9,572 versus $7,509) and maintains smaller classes (14.9:1 versus 17.1:1), yet West Cary posts significantly stronger results — with the widest gaps appearing in 8th grade: science (88.3% vs. 65.6%), math (78.6% vs. 56.6%), and reading (76.5% vs. 60.7%). Both schools struggle with chronic absenteeism near 20%, below the 24.2% state average, and both exceed state proficiency norms in most subjects. Reedy Creek also showed encouraging recent gains in 7th-grade reading and math, so while West Cary is the neighborhood's top academic performer, Reedy Creek remains a reasonable choice for parents, particularly given its smaller classes and higher funding per student.
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