Summary:
Middle Schools located in zip code 28034, which covers the Dallas, North Carolina area, consist of a single school, W C Friday Middle School, serving grades 6 through 8 as part of Gaston County Schools. This is a large middle school with 618 students, a student-teacher ratio of 18:1, and an extremely high economic disadvantage rate of 99.51% receiving free or reduced-price lunch.
Given that this is the only middle school in the zip code, there are no local peers for direct comparison, so the most meaningful context comes from district and state averages. One standout finding is that despite near-universal poverty, the school's chronic absenteeism rate of 21.4% is actually lower than the Gaston County district rate (23.2%) and the state rate (24.2%), showing that attendance is not the main barrier to achievement. The clearest academic strength is 6th grade reading, where 50% of students scored proficient—above the district average of 48.8% and close to the state's 54.8%. Another positive trend is in 8th grade, where proficiency jumped sharply from the prior year: science went from 35.8% to 56.9%, math from 28.3% to 40.5%, and reading from 40.6% to 48.7%.
The biggest concerns involve 7th grade performance. In 2025–2026, only 36.8% of 7th graders were proficient in math and just 35.8% in reading, trailing the district by roughly 10 points or more in both subjects. This represents a notable decline in 7th grade reading from 42.5% the year before. Overall, W C Friday Middle School ranks at the 26th percentile statewide with a 1-star rating, down from a 2-star rating two years earlier. While the school faces clear challenges in most tested areas, the improved 8th grade results and above-average attendance suggest a school that is trying to make progress despite a high level of economic disadvantage.
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