Best High Schools in Zip Code 27587

Zip code 27587 in Wake Forest, NC is served by three public high schools—Wake Forest High School, Heritage High, and North Wake College and Career Academy—all part of Wake County Schools, offering grades primarily 9-12 and drawing from a mix of suburban and semi-rural areas around Wake Forest. For parents, the clearest standout is North Wake College and Career Academy, a much smaller specialized school (346 students) that leads the area in nearly every academic measure: it ranks 110th in the state, posts an 84.3% average EOC proficiency across Biology, English II, Math I, and Math III, and has remarkably low chronic absenteeism at 12.1%. This is especially impressive given that it serves the highest percentage of economically disadvantaged students (36.1% free/reduced lunch) among the three schools. Its Math I proficiency of 76.7% is more than double the district rate and roughly 40 points higher than both traditional high schools.

Among the two larger comprehensive high schools, Heritage High and Wake Forest High School look similar in overall EOC proficiency (63.7% vs. 63.4%), but Heritage has the better attendance profile, with chronic absenteeism at 18.6% compared to Wake Forest’s troubling 30.0%—a rate well above both the district (20.5%) and state (24.2%). Wake Forest High School does boast the strongest graduation rate in the cluster at 92.6%, above the district’s 91.3%, while Heritage graduates at 90.8%. Heritage also edges out Wake Forest in Math III (78.7% vs. 77.1%) and English II (75.7% vs. 72.5%), but both large schools struggle with Math I: Heritage posts just 35.8% proficient and Wake Forest 33.8%, falling far below the state average of 42.1%.

A key takeaway for parents is that North Wake College and Career Academy is an elite option by state standards, while the two traditional high schools are solid but generally average within the high-performing Wake County district. All three schools exceed the state’s average EOC proficiency, yet both Heritage and Wake Forest perform slightly below the district’s own average. There is also a clear attendance-performance link across the cluster, with North Wake’s low absenteeism aligning with its high scores and Wake Forest’s high absenteeism aligning with its lower academic metrics. Per-pupil spending at North Wake ($13,377) is much higher than at Heritage ($8,792) and Wake Forest ($8,011), though that data is from 2018–2019 and should be viewed cautiously. Finally, all three schools lost modest ground in their statewide percentile rankings from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, suggesting that while local performance remains strong, other schools across North Carolina are improving at a faster pace.