Summary:
Zip code 28748 is home to one elementary school, Leicester Elementary, a PK–4 school with 399 students in the Buncombe County Schools district, serving a rural, high-poverty area west of Asheville. Because there is only one school in this zip code, the most meaningful comparisons are against the district and state rather than nearby schools.
Leicester Elementary stands out for its dramatic turnaround. In just two school years, it climbed from a 1-star rating (24th percentile statewide) to a 3-star rating (66th percentile), moving from 1,145th to 505th out of roughly 1,500 North Carolina elementary schools. Current EOG results show the school exceeding both the district and state in 3rd-grade reading, 3rd-grade math, and 4th-grade math. The biggest single-year jump came in 4th-grade math, which soared from 47.3% to 74.7% proficiency — a remarkable gain that took this subject from well below state averages to far above them. Even where performance lags, in 4th-grade reading, the school is essentially tied with the state and improved by nearly 8 points in one year.
What makes this progress especially notable is the school's economic profile: 98.75% of students qualify for free/reduced-price lunch, placing Leicester among the highest-poverty schools in North Carolina. Despite that, proficiency rates now rival or exceed wealthier districts. Chronic absenteeism at 21.0% is below the state average of 24.2% but above the district’s 18.7%, suggesting that reducing missed days could be a key lever for continued growth. With a student-teacher ratio of 15.3:1 and per-pupil spending of $11,642 (though that figure predates the recent academic data), Leicester Elementary is a compelling example of a high-need school on a strong upward trajectory.
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