Best High Schools in Zip Code 28303

Zip code 28303 in Fayetteville, NC is home to four public high schools serving grades 9 through 12, all part of Cumberland County Schools, and together they educate roughly 2,900 students across very different campus environments. The group includes two large traditional high schools, Westover High and Terry Sanford High, plus two smaller specialty schools, Cumberland Polytechnic and Alger B. Wilkins High School. The district itself holds a 2-star rating from SchoolDigger, ranking 141 of 246 districts in North Carolina.

At one end, Cumberland Polytechnic is an elite school, ranked 13th of 662 high schools in North Carolina with a five-star rating and a four-subject EOC proficiency average of 99.1 percent. At the other end of the spectrum, Alger B. Wilkins High School ranks 641st with a 0-star rating, a 17.9 percent EOC average, and a graduation rate of 69.3 percent, far below the district's 88.7 percent. This school spends the most per student ($13,760) and has the lowest student-teacher ratio (13.4) in the group, while Cumberland Polytechnic has the highest ratio at 34.2 and near-perfect results. Money and smaller classes alone clearly do not overcome challenges like chronic absenteeism, which affects 47.5 percent of this school's students.

Among the traditional schools, Westover High shows the most encouraging momentum, lifting its average EOC proficiency from 38.1 to 52.2 percent in a single year even though nearly all of its students (99.76 percent) qualify for free or reduced lunch. Terry Sanford High remains the strongest option for consistent graduation outcomes, posting a 91.1 percent rate with the lowest chronic absenteeism (36.6 percent) among the traditional high schools, but its state ranking has slipped from the 49th to the 34th percentile over three years. Chronic absenteeism is a serious problem across all three traditional schools, far above the state's 24.2 percent rate, and Math I is the biggest academic weakness at each of the three lower-performing schools. Families choosing between these schools will find dramatically different environments and results within one postal code.