1
Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Bessemer Elementary?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
509
Elementary
DISTRICT 452 · STATE 467
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·GUILFORD COUNTY SCHOOLS·NCES 370192000760
Bessemer Elementary
918 Huffine Mill Road, Greensboro, NC 27405 · (336) 375-2585 · Guilford County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL509 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 3% of North Carolina public elementary schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- FBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded North Carolina public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
16.5:1
31 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.4:1 · STATE 14.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
99%
506 students
DISTRICT 92% · STATE 82%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 38 | 7% |
| Kindergarten | 71 | 14% |
| Grade 1 | 77 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 82 | 16% |
| Grade 3 | 73 | 14% |
| Grade 4 | 80 | 16% |
| Grade 5 | 88 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (71) is 19% smaller than its 5th grade class (88).
Student demographics
54%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 71% · STATE 71% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
NC EOG / EOC 2024-25 . % Grade Level Proficient (Level 3+)English Language Arts
29.1%
NC avg 50.9%
Math
28.1%
NC avg 52.2%
What this means: On the NC EOG / EOC, North Carolina's statewide test, about 29 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 28 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all North Carolina schools, those numbers are about 51 and 52.
Source: NC EOG / EOC. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of NC schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
29.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
48.5%
based on NC schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-19.1pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 29% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 48% typical for North Carolina schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Bessemer Elementary
Bessemer Elementary's state test result (29.4% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bessemer Elementary this school | 509 | 99.4% | 29.4% |
| Statesville Road Elementary Charlotte | 482 | 99.4% | 48.2% |
| Westerly Hills Academy Charlotte | 522 | 99.4% | 51.4% |
| River Oaks Academy Charlotte | 555 | 99.5% | 34.2% |
| Montlieu Academy of Technology High Point | 499 | 99.4% | 49.5% |
| Waldo C Falkener Sr Elementary Greensboro | 530 | 99.4% | 28.6% |
Matched among North Carolina elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Bessemer Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In North Carolina | In Guilford County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 29.4% | #1,250 of 1,297 | #61 of 64 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 28.1% | #1,265 of 1,296 | #64 of 64 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 29.1% | #1,204 of 1,300 | #61 of 64 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 509 | #584 of 1,485 | #30 of 76 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.5:1 | #1,117 of 1,377 | #63 of 72 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 54.1% | #900 of 1,379 | #53 of 72 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 99.4% | #267 of 1,414 | #22 of 74 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +11.1% | #180 of 369 | #10 of 19 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
509
+64 (+14%) vs 2020
-2% since 2000-01, when it was 522
Student : Teacher
16.5:1
was 13.1:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 509 | 30.9 | 16.5:1 | 99% (506) |
| 2023-24 | 468 | 33.6 | 13.9:1 | 99% (465) |
| 2022-23 | 465 | 33.6 | 13.8:1 | 99% (462) |
| 2020-21 | 445 | 34 | 13.1:1 | 99% (442) |
| 2017-18 | 458 | 28.8 | 15.9:1 | 99% (455) |
| 2015-16 | 528 | 34 | 15.5:1 | 97% (511) |
| 2010-11 | 436 | 33 | 13.2:1 | 86% (375) |
| 2000-01 | 522 | 35 | 14.9:1 | 45% (237) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Bessemer Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students up 11% (458 to 509); teachers up 7% (28.8 to 30.9).
About Bessemer Elementary
Bessemer Elementary is an elementary school in Greensboro, North Carolina, reachable at (336) 375-2585. The school counts 509 students across pre-K through 5.
Besides Bessemer Elementary, Guilford County Schools runs 122 other schools. The district enrolls 68,535 students.
At 62%, Black students outnumber all other groups at Bessemer Elementary combined. Other students are 27% Hispanic, 4% Asian, 4% White, and 3% multiracial. By comparison, Guilford County residents are about 34% Black. The chance that two students picked at random at Bessemer Elementary belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 54%.
Dividing enrollment by its 30.9 full-time-equivalent teachers gives a ratio of about 16.5:1. The average ratio among elementary schools in North Carolina is 14.9:1, lower than at this school. Bessemer Elementary reports 99% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. For comparison, public schools in Guilford County average 89%.
allk12 grades Bessemer Elementary an F. The grade compares the school only with North Carolina public elementary schools, because each state gives its own test.
Bessemer Elementary trails its predicted average proficiency rate on state tests by 19.1 points (29.4% versus 48.5%), a bottom-10% result in North Carolina on BeatsExpectations.
Guilford County has these Census figures: median household income is about $68,642, about 39% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 10%. Bessemer Elementary is among the 143 public schools in Guilford County.
The next-closest public school is Gateway Education Center, less than a tenth of a mile away. In all, at least 8 other public schools sit within five miles of Bessemer Elementary. Of 4 schools in the immediate area with test results, Bessemer Elementary ranks 3rd on average proficiency.
Federal data place Bessemer Elementary in the City: Large locale, which means it is inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
The number of students climbed from 445 to 509 over 4 years. Over the same period, the student-to-teacher ratio rose to 16.5:1, from 13.1:1.
Discussion on this page can cover sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
Guilford County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
547,940
Census ACS
Median income
$68,642
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
39%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
10%
Below federal line
Schools in county
143
79,539 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Guilford County Schools
- Northwest Guilford HighHigh · 2,055 students
- Grimsley HighHigh · 1,967 students
- Page HighHigh · 1,648 students
- Southwest Guilford HighHigh · 1,547 students
- James B Dudley HighHigh · 1,403 students
- Ben L. Smith High SchoolHigh · 1,348 students
Other schools in Greensboro
- Northwest Guilford HighHigh · 2,055 students
- Grimsley HighHigh · 1,967 students
- Page HighHigh · 1,648 students
- James B Dudley HighHigh · 1,403 students
- Triad Math and Science AcademyCombined · 1,374 students
- Ben L. Smith High SchoolHigh · 1,348 students
Other Bessemer Elementary schools
One other US public school is named Bessemer Elementary. Bessemer Elementary is the largest of the 2.
- Bessemer Elementary SchoolPUEBLO, CO · 248 students
Nearby schools
- Gateway Education Center0.1 mi · 146
- Herbin Metz Education Center0.5 mi · 68
- Otis L Hairston Sr Middle0.5 mi · 658
- Middle College at GTCC-Greensboro0.6 mi · 162
- Waldo C Falkener Sr Elementary0.6 mi · 530
- Gate City Charter1.5 mi · 715
Frequently asked questions
About Bessemer ElementaryWhat is the total enrollment at Bessemer Elementary?
Bessemer Elementary enrolls approximately 509 students in grades PK-05.
Is Bessemer Elementary an elementary, middle, or high school?
Bessemer Elementary is an elementary school covering grades PK-05.
How many teachers does Bessemer Elementary have?
Bessemer Elementary employs 31 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 16.5:1.
What is the student diversity at Bessemer Elementary?
Student demographics at Bessemer Elementary are roughly 4% White, 27% Hispanic, 62% Black, 4% Asian, 3% Two or more.
What district is Bessemer Elementary in?
Bessemer Elementary is part of Guilford County Schools.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.