Sanford, NC schools
Sanford’s public schools score well below North Carolina’s averages: 39% of students are proficient in reading against 47.2% statewide, and 87% of high schoolers graduate on time against 87.7%. Kids attend WB Wicker Elementary or BT Bullock Elementary or J R Ingram Jr Elementary through grade 5, then SanLee Middle School or East Lee Middle or West Lee Middle and Lee County High or Southern Lee High School or Lee Early College.
Grades, test scores, graduation, spending and every school, from U.S. Department of Education data.
Sanford’s School Grade: C+
The public schools Sanford’s kids attend, from kindergarten through graduation, trail 64% of North Carolina’s districts on state tests and graduation. Among towns with similar incomes, they rank near the bottom.
How the School Grade works
- Results, not inputs. Math and reading proficiency on North Carolina’s state tests, each against the state average, plus the four-year graduation rate. Spending and class size are shown below but don’t count toward the grade. Tests: 2020–21; graduation: class of 2020.
- The whole path. A town’s grade follows its kids: every district that serves it, weighted by the number of students tested in each. Tests count 60% and graduation 40%.
- Graded within the state. Each state writes its own tests, so districts are lined up against the rest of North Carolina only. A+ top 5%A next 10%A- next 10%B B+ to B−, next 30%C C+ to C−, next 30%D D and D−, bottom 15%
- Individual schools are graded the same way on their own test results, against every public school in North Carolina with 25+ students. Private schools aren’t graded: they don’t take the state tests.
- What a grade can’t tell you. Test results track family income closely, so a high grade partly reflects who lives in a town. That’s why we also compare towns with similar incomes. Visit, ask other parents, and read neighbor reviews. It’s our own summary of U.S. Department of Education data, not an official rating.
Where Sanford kids go to school
Based on district boundaries from the U.S. Department of Education. Check with the district before you enroll.
Well below the state in reading
87% graduate on time
The share of students who started ninth grade together and earned a regular diploma within four years. #173 of 284 NC towns →
The district serving Sanford
Each district’s own page has its spending, test scores, enrollment and every school.
All 16 schools in Sanford
School data from the U.S. Department of Education (NCES). Ratings are from neighbors on TownTapestry.