Summary:
ZIP code 28610 in Claremont, North Carolina is served by two elementary schools: Oxford Elementary (K-6, 540 students) and Claremont Elementary (PK-6, 462 students), both in Catawba County Schools. The two schools look nearly identical on paper: almost all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch (98.7% at Oxford, 99.35% at Claremont), and student-teacher ratios are nearly the same (16.3 vs. 16.0). Yet their academic results differ meaningfully, making this a clean comparison for parents.
Claremont Elementary is clearly the higher-performing school, ranking at the 50th percentile statewide (752 of 1,492) for 2025-26 compared with Oxford Elementary's 31st percentile (1,028 of 1,492). Claremont outscored Oxford on 8 of 9 grade-level tests, has lower chronic absenteeism (12.8% vs. 16.9%), and built its biggest leads in upper-grade math: 72.2% of Claremont 6th graders are proficient in math versus 47.9% at Oxford, and 5th-grade math is 60.0% versus 41.9%. Oxford is the rapidly improving school, however, jumping from the 21st to the 31st percentile and from a 1-star to a 2-star rating in one year, with schoolwide math proficiency up from 47.7% to 53.3%, reading up from 34.9% to 40.6%, and 5th-grade science soaring from 54.1% to 71.6%.
Parents will find bright spots at both schools. In 3rd-grade math, Oxford (73.2%) and Claremont (78.8%) both exceed district and state averages, and both schools beat the state in 5th-grade science (71.6% and 72.0% vs. 67.7%). Attendance is also a relative strength, with chronic absenteeism below the district's 18.0% and well below the state's 24.2%. The biggest concern is reading in grades 4-6, where both schools fall well behind district and state averages. Oxford's 6th-grade reading proficiency is just 33.8%, and even Claremont falls from 57.6% in 3rd grade to 37.0% in 6th grade reading — a trend worth watching as students head toward middle school.
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