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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Davis Drive Middle?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
992
Middle
DISTRICT 887 · STATE 605
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·WAKE COUNTY SCHOOLS·NCES 370472002031
Davis Drive Middle
2101 Davis Drive, Cary, NC 27519 · (919) 387-3033 · Wake County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE12-CITYREGULAR SCHOOL992 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
17.4:1
57 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.2:1 · STATE 15.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
13%
132 students
DISTRICT 47% · STATE 82%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 318 | 32% |
| Grade 7 | 339 | 34% |
| Grade 8 | 335 | 34% |
Student demographics
66%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 73% · 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
Davis Drive Middle→Green Hope High
Based on published attendance-zone data from Wake County Schools. Zones change; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
NC EOG / EOC 2024-25 . % Grade Level Proficient (Level 3+)English Language Arts
83.9%
NC avg 50.9%
Math
90.6%
NC avg 52.2%
What this means: On the NC EOG / EOC, North Carolina's statewide test, about 84 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 91 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
87.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
74.8%
based on NC schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+12.7pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 87% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 75% 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 Davis Drive Middle
Davis Drive Middle's state test result (87.5% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Davis Drive Middle this school | 992 | 13.3% | 87.5% |
| Harris Road Middle Concord | 1,368 | 13.5% | 88.0% |
| Community House Middle Charlotte | 1,425 | 20.4% | 85.7% |
| Alston Ridge Middle Cary | 1,494 | 21.3% | 79.2% |
| Jay M. Robinson Middle Charlotte | 1,333 | 20.1% | 85.9% |
| West Cary Middle Cary | 824 | 30.0% | 73.5% |
Matched among North Carolina middle 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 Davis Drive Middle ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In North Carolina | In Wake County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 87.5% | #7 of 463 | #3 of 38 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 90.6% | #4 of 461 | #2 of 37 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 83.9% | #6 of 463 | #2 of 38 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 992 | #42 of 478 | #13 of 40 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.4:1 | #333 of 456 | #31 of 39 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 66.5% | #150 of 456 | #14 of 39 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 13.3% | #466 of 472 | #36 of 38 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -26.7% | #33 of 300 | #6 of 28 |
Ranked against other public middle 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
992
+81 (+9%) vs 2020
-20% since 2000-01, when it was 1,239
Student : Teacher
17.4:1
was 16.0:1
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 | 992 | 57 | 17.4:1 | 13% (132) |
| 2023-24 | 997 | 59.2 | 16.9:1 | 12% (118) |
| 2022-23 | 959 | 57 | 16.8:1 | 12% (118) |
| 2020-21 | 911 | 57 | 16.0:1 | 7% (68) |
| 2017-18 | 1,354 | 73.5 | 18.4:1 | 8% (115) |
| 2015-16 | 1,299 | 67 | 19.4:1 | 7% (97) |
| 2010-11 | 1,186 | 65 | 18.3:1 | 17% (201) |
| 2000-01 | 1,239 | 72 | 17.2:1 | 15% (185) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Davis Drive Middle.
Since 2017-18: students down 27% (1,354 to 992); teachers down 22% (73.5 to 57).
About Davis Drive Middle
Davis Drive Middle is a large middle school in North Carolina, located in Cary. It had 992 students in 2024-25, spanning grades 6 through 8. Middle schools in North Carolina have about 605 students on average; enrollment here is 64% higher.
Wake County Schools, which runs Davis Drive Middle, has 198 schools and 163,176 students.
The largest racial or ethnic group at Davis Drive Middle is Asian, with 42% of students. Next come 38% White, 11% Hispanic, 4% Black, and 4% multiracial. The county population is about 9% Asian. The diversity index for Davis Drive Middle is 66%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
On staff are 57 full-time-equivalent teachers; the student-to-teacher ratio is 17.4:1. Middle schools in North Carolina average 15.9:1, 1.5 fewer students per teacher than here. Davis Drive Middle has a free or reduced-price lunch rate of 13%. On average, public schools in Wake County report 42%.
BeatsExpectations compares each school's average proficiency rate across its state test results with a prediction based on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility. For Davis Drive Middle, the prediction is 74.8% and the result is 87.5%.
In the surrounding county, Wake County, the median household earns about $105,768 a year, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 57%, and roughly 5% of residents are in poverty. Wake County has 237 public schools with about 184,790 students, including Davis Drive Middle.
The closest school to Davis Drive Middle is Davis Drive Elementary, located about 0.2 miles away. The count of other public schools within five miles is at least 8. Among its closest neighbors with test data, Davis Drive Middle is 2nd of 8 on proficiency.
The National Center for Education Statistics classifies the school's location as City: Mid-size, meaning it is inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
Over 4 years, enrollment increased by 81 students, from 911 to 992. There were more students per teacher in 2024-25 (17.4:1) than in 2020-21 (16.0:1).
On allk12, people connected to Davis Drive Middle can post about athletics, class schedules, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.
Wake County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
1,178,653
Census ACS
Median income
$105,768
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
57%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
5%
Below federal line
Schools in county
237
184,790 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Wake County Schools
- Apex Friendship HighHigh · 2,748 students
- Enloe HighHigh · 2,643 students
- Panther Creek HighHigh · 2,609 students
- Millbrook HighHigh · 2,498 students
- Apex HighHigh · 2,449 students
- Leesville Road HighHigh · 2,411 students
Other schools in Cary
- Panther Creek HighHigh · 2,609 students
- Green Hope HighHigh · 2,304 students
- Green Level HighHigh · 2,283 students
- Cary HighHigh · 2,044 students
- Triangle Math and Science AcademyCombined · 1,904 students
- Mills Park MiddleMiddle · 1,632 students
Nearby schools
- Davis Drive Elementary0.2 mi · 794
- Salem Middle1.4 mi · 1,057
- Turner Creek Elementary1.4 mi · 638
- Salem Elementary1.5 mi · 776
- Green Hope Elementary1.8 mi · 548
- Laurel Park Elementary1.9 mi · 694
Frequently asked questions
About Davis Drive MiddleHow many students attend Davis Drive Middle?
Davis Drive Middle enrolls approximately 992 students in grades 06-08.
Is Davis Drive Middle an elementary, middle, or high school?
Davis Drive Middle is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
How many teachers does Davis Drive Middle have?
Davis Drive Middle employs 57 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 17.4:1.
What is the student diversity at Davis Drive Middle?
Student demographics at Davis Drive Middle are roughly 38% White, 11% Hispanic, 4% Black, 42% Asian, 4% Two or more.
Who oversees Davis Drive Middle?
Davis Drive Middle is overseen by Wake County Schools in Wake County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.