Best High Schools in Zip Code 28125

Zip code 28125 in Mount Ulla, North Carolina is served by a single high school, West Rowan High, which enrolls 988 students in grades 9-12 as part of the Rowan-Salisbury Schools district. West Rowan stands out most for its 92.5% graduation rate, which exceeds both the district rate of 86.6% and the state rate of 88.8%, even though a striking 99.7% of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. That strength is counterbalanced by serious academic challenges: proficiency rates on all four End-of-Course tests fall below state averages. The school earned an 18th-percentile state ranking (543rd out of 662 schools) for 2025-2026, a meaningful improvement from the 8th percentile in the prior year, but it remains near the bottom statewide.

Recent test results show strong year-over-year gains. Between 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, proficiency jumped by 28.8 percentage points in Biology and 15 points in Math I, with more modest increases in English II and Math III. Nevertheless, math remains the biggest weakness: only 25.1% of students are proficient in Math I compared with 42.1% statewide, and Math III proficiency is 40.2% versus 68.9% statewide. For context, the school outperforms its own district in Biology and English II but falls below the district in both math subjects. Chronic absenteeism is another concern, with 35.4% of students missing enough school to be considered chronically absent, well above the state's 24.2% rate. The student-teacher ratio is 21.6 to 1, and per-student spending was $9,333 in 2018-2019, an older figure that should be interpreted cautiously.

For parents, the overall picture is one of a high-poverty school with a genuine strength in graduating students and a recent upward academic trajectory, but with persistent and significant gaps relative to the rest of North Carolina. The biggest takeaway is that West Rowan is making progress in a difficult context, particularly in science and English, yet math achievement and chronic absenteeism remain urgent areas needing attention. The school's improvements have moved it from 0 stars to 1 star in the state's accountability system, but it still has a long way to go before it can be considered academically competitive at the state level.