Mills Park Elementary in Cary posts the highest test proficiency of any public elementary school in Wake County, the North Carolina county that holds Raleigh, with about 89% of students scoring proficient or above on the state's assessments, according to an allk12 analysis of state and federal data.
Right behind it are Hortons Creek and Davis Drive, both also in Cary, each above 88%. The near-tie at the top is less interesting than the address they share. Almost the entire upper half of this list sits in the same corner of the county, the western suburbs near the Research Triangle, and that is the pattern worth understanding.
The top 15 elementary schools by test proficiency
Proficiency is the share of students scoring proficient or above on North Carolina's statewide assessments, composited across tested grades and subjects. The list covers traditional public elementary schools with at least 350 students; charter schools are excluded so the comparison stays among neighborhood district schools. Every school links to its allk12 profile.
| Rank | Elementary school | City | Students | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mills Park Elementary | Cary | 594 | 88.9% |
| 2 | Hortons Creek Elementary | Cary | 739 | 88.4% |
| 3 | Davis Drive Elementary | Cary | 794 | 88.3% |
| 4 | Apex Friendship Elementary | Apex | 896 | 88.0% |
| 5 | Highcroft Elementary | Cary | 698 | 87.2% |
| 6 | Olive Chapel Elementary | Apex | 1,066 | 86.2% |
| 7 | Barton Pond Elementary | Raleigh | 515 | 85.9% |
| 8 | Scotts Ridge Elementary | Apex | 869 | 85.6% |
| 9 | Green Hope Elementary | Cary | 548 | 85.1% |
| 10 | Holly Grove Elementary | Holly Springs | 889 | 83.2% |
| 11 | Holly Springs Elementary | Holly Springs | 751 | 82.2% |
| 12 | Jones Dairy Elementary | Wake Forest | 627 | 81.8% |
| 13 | Leesville Road Elementary | Raleigh | 528 | 81.4% |
| 14 | Parkside Elementary | Morrisville | 730 | 80.9% |
| 15 | Oakview Elementary | Apex | 873 | 80.5% |
Read the map, not just the ranking
Cary and Apex take most of the top 10, with Morrisville and Holly Springs close behind, all of them in the western, Research Triangle side of the county where the tech economy and its salaries are concentrated. Those are among the higher-income parts of Wake, and elementary test scores track household income about as closely as any school number does. A large share of what lifts an 89% school over a 60% one is the economic circumstances of the families enrolled, not a secret in the building.
A high score in an affluent zone tells you the school is not struggling; it does not prove that school would do more for a particular child than a lower-ranked one with strong teachers. Wake County runs one of the largest school systems in the country, a single countywide district serving well over a hundred thousand students, so families here often have real options within the same system. Pull each school's profile for the year-to-year trend and the student-teacher ratio, and keep the income context in mind. Our explainer on how school ratings actually work covers what these figures capture and miss, and the piece on free and reduced-price lunch explains the income measure underneath them. For the bigger picture statewide, see which North Carolina counties have the best public schools.
Data note: proficiency figures reflect allk12's analysis of North Carolina statewide assessment results and federal (NCES) enrollment for the 2024-25 school year, composited across tested grades and subjects. The list is limited to traditional public schools with at least 350 students. Treat the figures as a tier, more than a precise ranking.
Sources
Test proficiency and enrollment figures from allk12's analysis of North Carolina Department of Public Instruction assessment data and National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data, 2024-25.
allk12: Which North Carolina counties have the best public schools
