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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Cornelius Elementary?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
542
Elementary
DISTRICT 596 · STATE 467
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG SCHOOLS·NCES 370297001205
Cornelius Elementary
21126 Catawba Ave, Cornelius, NC 28031 · (980) 343-3905 · Mecklenburg County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL542 STUDENTS
A-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 77% of North Carolina public elementary schools
- ATest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- BBeats 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
15.1:1
36 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.4:1 · STATE 14.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
29%
157 students
DISTRICT 73% · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 83 | 15% |
| Grade 1 | 89 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 96 | 18% |
| Grade 3 | 80 | 15% |
| Grade 4 | 110 | 20% |
| Grade 5 | 84 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (83) is about the same size as its 5th grade class (84).
Student demographics
49%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 72% · 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
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Cornelius Elementary→Bailey Middle
Based on published attendance-zone data from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Zones change; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
NC EOG / EOC 2024-25 . % Grade Level Proficient (Level 3+)English Language Arts
69.0%
NC avg 50.9%
Math
79.5%
NC avg 52.2%
What this means: On the NC EOG / EOC, North Carolina's statewide test, about 69 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 80 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
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
75.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
70.0%
based on NC schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+5.0pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 75% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 70% typical for North Carolina schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among North Carolina's top nor bottom 10%.
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 Cornelius Elementary
Cornelius Elementary's state test result (75.0% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cornelius Elementary this school | 542 | 29.0% | 75.0% |
| Creekside Elementary New Bern | 453 | 27.8% | 79.8% |
| Leesville Road Elementary Raleigh | 528 | 27.7% | 81.4% |
| Catawba Springs Elementary Denver | 543 | 34.4% | 74.6% |
| Lakeshore Elementary Mooresville | 658 | 29.3% | 64.3% |
| West Lake Elementary Apex | 581 | 32.0% | 67.9% |
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 Cornelius Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In North Carolina | In Mecklenburg County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 75.0% | #136 of 1,297 | #29 of 115 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 79.5% | #130 of 1,296 | #25 of 115 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 69.0% | #150 of 1,300 | #30 of 116 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 542 | #489 of 1,485 | #74 of 136 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.1:1 | #771 of 1,377 | #50 of 133 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 49.3% | #998 of 1,379 | #100 of 133 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 29.0% | #1,309 of 1,414 | #107 of 130 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -11.7% | #526 of 937 | #50 of 72 |
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
542
-37 (-6%) vs 2020
-19% since 1990-91, when it was 671
Student : Teacher
15.1:1
was 14.1:1
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 | 542 | 36 | 15.1:1 | 29% (157) |
| 2023-24 | 556 | 37 | 15.0:1 | 30% (166) |
| 2022-23 | 567 | 36.5 | 15.5:1 | 24% (138) |
| 2020-21 | 579 | 41 | 14.1:1 | 22% (126) |
| 2017-18 | 614 | 34.5 | 17.8:1 | 24% (147) |
| 2015-16 | 634 | 34 | 18.6:1 | 29% (186) |
| 2010-11 | 701 | 38 | 18.4:1 | 28% (197) |
| 2000-01 | 915 | 38 | 24.1:1 | 11% (100) |
| 1990-91 | 671 | 32 | 21.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Cornelius Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 12% (614 to 542); teachers up 4% (34.5 to 36).
About Cornelius Elementary
Cornelius Elementary is an elementary school in Cornelius, North Carolina, and it is part of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Students in kindergarten through 5 make up the school's enrollment of 542 students.
Cornelius Elementary sits within Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, which has 186 schools and 145,014 students.
White students are 69% of those enrolled at Cornelius Elementary. Other reported shares: 15% Hispanic, 9% Black, 4% multiracial, and 4% Asian. That compares with about 45% White among all Mecklenburg County residents. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 49%.
Its staff includes 36 full-time-equivalent teachers, for about 15.1 students per teacher. It is about the same as the 14.9:1 average for elementary schools in North Carolina. Cornelius Elementary has a free or reduced-price lunch rate of 29%. By comparison, the figure for public schools in Mecklenburg County is 71%.
Cornelius Elementary earns an A- on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 77% of North Carolina public elementary schools.
The allk12 BeatsExpectations score for Cornelius Elementary is +5.0 points: 75.0% actual, 70.0% predicted.
American Community Survey estimates for Mecklenburg County show that the median household earns about $87,005 a year, about 49% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 7% of residents are in poverty. Mecklenburg County has 226 public schools with about 170,407 students, including Cornelius Elementary.
Of the public schools around it, Cornelius Elementary is closest to Davidson K-8 School, about 1.0 miles away. Cornelius Elementary has at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Ranking the closest schools with test data puts Cornelius Elementary at 4th of 6.
Cornelius Elementary is coded as Suburb: Large in federal locale data.
The school shrank from 579 students in 2020-21 to 542 in 2024-25.
This page collects posts and questions about Cornelius Elementary, such as fundraisers, report cards, and school supplies. Members of the school community can share what they know.
Mecklenburg County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
1,154,681
Census ACS
Median income
$87,005
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
49%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
226
170,407 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
- Myers Park High SchoolHigh · 3,225 students
- Ardrey Kell High SchoolHigh · 3,036 students
- South Mecklenburg High SchoolHigh · 2,534 students
- William Amos Hough HighHigh · 2,518 students
- East Mecklenburg High SchoolHigh · 2,422 students
- Palisades High SchoolHigh · 2,332 students
Other schools in Cornelius
- William Amos Hough HighHigh · 2,518 students
- Bailey MiddleMiddle · 1,315 students
- J.V. Washam ElementaryElementary · 818 students
- Lakeside Charter AcademyElementary · 221 students
Other Cornelius Elementary schools
2 other US public schools in 3 states are named Cornelius Elementary. Cornelius Elementary is the 2nd largest of the 3.
- Cornelius Elementary SchoolHOUSTON, TX · 763 students
- Cornelius Elementary SchoolCornelius, OR · 372 students
Nearby schools
- Davidson K-8 School1.0 mi · 1,185
- J.V. Washam Elementary1.1 mi · 818
- Bailey Middle1.8 mi · 1,315
- Community School of Davidson1.9 mi · 1,631
- William Amos Hough High2.2 mi · 2,518
- Lakeside Charter Academy2.4 mi · 221
Frequently asked questions
About Cornelius ElementaryHow many students attend Cornelius Elementary?
Cornelius Elementary enrolls approximately 542 students in grades KG-05.
Is Cornelius Elementary an elementary, middle, or high school?
Cornelius Elementary is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
How many teachers does Cornelius Elementary have?
Cornelius Elementary employs 36 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 15.1:1.
What is the student diversity at Cornelius Elementary?
Student demographics at Cornelius Elementary are roughly 69% White, 15% Hispanic, 9% Black, 4% Asian, 4% Two or more.
What district is Cornelius Elementary in?
Cornelius Elementary is part of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.