Summary:
Zip code 27601 in Raleigh, North Carolina, is home to five public schools in the Wake County Schools district — two elementary schools (Hunter Elementary and Washington Elementary), two middle schools (Ligon Middle and Moore Square Middle), and one high school, Wake Young Men's Leadership Academy, which actually serves grades 6–12 and gives families three public options for the middle grades rather than just two.
The clear standout is Wake Young Men's Leadership Academy, ranked #22 out of 662 high schools in North Carolina with near-perfect scores — 96% proficient in Biology, 99.9% in English II, and 100% in Math III, all far above the Wake County Schools averages. Among the traditional options, Moore Square Middle is the stronger middle school, holding an 89th-percentile rank and beating Ligon Middle in every grade and subject — for example, 72.5% proficiency in 8th-grade math versus 58.4% at Ligon. At the elementary level, Hunter Elementary outranks Washington Elementary (88th vs. 82nd percentile) and leads by 11–13 points in 5th-grade math and reading. Every school in 27601 exceeds North Carolina state proficiency averages in all tested subjects.
The biggest concern is Ligon Middle, which has slipped from the 87th to the 74th percentile in state rankings over two years. It is also the zip code's largest school at 959 students, with the highest student-teacher ratio (15.1) and the lowest per-student spending. Meanwhile, Moore Square Middle has stayed steadily in the 89th–90th percentile range. Chronic absenteeism is notably low everywhere — from 10.2% at Hunter Elementary to 17.8% at Washington Elementary, far below the district rate of 20.5% — which likely supports the area's strong academic results. For parents, Wake Young Men's Leadership Academy, Moore Square Middle, and Hunter Elementary are the top performers in a consistently above-average set of schools.
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