Charlotte, Lake Norman Area Schools Ranked Among Top In State

CHARLOTTE, NC -- With the 2017-18 school year less than a month away from kicking off across North Carolina, students and their parents can see how their particular school district stacks up against others in the state as Niche.com has released its annual rankings of best schools and school districts in the country.

To arrive at the rankings, Niche looked at data from the U.S. Department of Education as well as test scores, college data and ratings collected from Niche users. The methodology for each category of rankings varied with some factors having a higher weight for certain categories over others.

The 2018 rankings released this month rank elementary, middle and high schools as well as school districts. (Sign up for our free daily newsletters and Breaking News Alerts for the Charlotte Patch. iPhone users can download the Patch app in the App Store. Plus, like Charlotte Patch on Facebook.)

Best School Districts
Mooresville City Schools were ranked in the top 10 listing of all North Carolina school districts, according to Niche. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools were ranked No. 30.

In the best school district rankings for North Carolina include:

• No. 1 - Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools
• No. 2 - Watauga County Schools
• No. 3 - Union County Public Schools
• No. 4 - Asheville City Schools
• No. 5 - Wake County Schools
• No. 6 - Polk County Schools
• No. 7 - Orange County Schools
• No. 8 - Mount Airy City Schools
• No. 9 - Elkin City Schools
• No. 10 - Mooresville City Schools

View Niche’s rankings of North Carolina school districts here.

Best elementary schools

While no North Carolina elementary schools made the top 25 public elementary school rankings on a national level, one Charlotte-area elementary school came in No. 1 in rankings of North Carolina elementary schools.

In the best elementary school rankings for North Carolina include:

• No. 1 - Metrolina Regional Scholars Academy - Charlotte
• No. 2 - Envision Science Academy - Raleigh, N.C.
• No. 3 - Sterling Montessori Academy - Morrisville, N.C.
• No. 4 - Tiller School - Beaufot, N.C.
• No. 5 - Quest Academy - Raleigh, N.C.
• No. 6 - Seawell Elementary School - Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, N.C.
• No. 7 - Glenwood Elementary School - Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, N.C.
• No. 8 - F. Delany New School for Children - Asheville, N.C.
• No. 9 - Magellan Charter School - Raleigh, N.C.
• No. 10 - Triangle Math & Science Academy - Cary, N.C.

View the full Niche best elementary school rankings here.

Best public high schools
When it came to ranking the top high schools in North Carolina, one Charlotte school -- Ardrey Kell High School -- made the top 10, according to Niche.

The best high school rankings for North Carolina include:

• No. 1 - The Early College at Guilford
• No. 2 - Raleigh Charter High School
• No. 3 - East Chapel Hill High School
• No. 4 - Green Hope High School
• No. 5 - Panther Creek High School
• No. 6 - William G. Enloe High School
• No. 7 - Carrboro High School
• No. 8 - Wayne Early Middle College High School
• No. 9 - Ardrey Kell High School (Charlotte, N.C.)
• No. 10 - Chapel Hill High School

Also ranked in the Charlotte-metro area were Myers Park High School at No. 14, Lake Norman Charter School at No. 15, Community School of Davidson at No. 19 and Pine Lake Preparatory School in Mooresville was ranked #25.

View Niche’s rankings of North Carolina public high schools here.

For the best school districts, academics grade was given the highest priority in the methodology with 50 percent of the ranking being based on this data. Niche calculated academics grade by using data from the Department of Education as well as data that was self reported by Niche users. Teachers grade accounted for 15 percent of the ranking while culture and diversity and parent/student surveys on overall experience both accounted for 10 percent of the ranking. The remaining 15 percent of the ranking was based on health and safety, resources and facilities, clubs and activities, and sports.(Click here for more information on how Niche calculates its rankings.)

Niche assigns a standardized score for each factor, which is then weighted before an overall score is calculated for each school district. The overall scores are again standardized and some districts are disqualified from receiving a final letter grade if there isn’t enough data. School districts are then ranked numerically and assigned grades.

What do you think of the rankings? Let us know in the comments below.

Image via Shutterstock

Feroze Dhanoa (Patch National Staff) contributed to this article