Total enrollment
51,745
-98 (0%) vs SY 2020-21
81 schools in Winston Salem / Forsyth County Schools
North Carolina · 51,745 students · 9 cities
Winston Salem / Forsyth County Schools in North Carolina runs 81 public K-12 schools today, teaching roughly 51,745 students (an average of 639 per school).
4-year change in Winston Salem / Forsyth County Schools
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25School count
79
+3 (+4%) vs SY 2020-21
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, enrollment-weighted demographic averages
How Winston Salem / Forsyth County Schools ranks
Among districts| Measure | This district | In North Carolina | In the US |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 48.8% | #64 of 112 | N/A |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 51,745 | #4 of 116 | #86 of 9,234 |
| Number of schools ranked most first | 79 | #5 of 116 | N/A |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.5:1 | #24 of 116 | #5,009 of 9,044 |
| Free or reduced-price lunch share ranked highest first | 88.0% | #77 of 114 | #810 of 8,164 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 71.7% | #8 of 111 | #233 of 6,853 |
Districts need at least 2 schools and 500 students to be ranked. Test proficiency is ranked within the state only, since each state gives a different test. Each rank links to the full list.
Inside Winston Salem / Forsyth County Schools
State test results across the district's 69 scored schools run from Sherwood Forest Elementary at 87.5% proficient to Carver High at 15.5%, a gap of 72.0 points. That is the 5th widest gap among 104 North Carolina districts with four or more scored schools.
Since 2017-18, the 78 district schools that reported both years went from 54,995 to 50,857 students (down 8%) and from 3,697 to 3,506 full-time teachers (down 5%), as of 2024-25.
Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across each school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25; schools with fewer than 100 students and schools serving specialized populations are left out. Staffing figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data and count only schools that reported students and teachers in both years.
About Winston Salem / Forsyth County Schools
As a medium-population district in North Carolina, Winston Salem / Forsyth County Schools teaches 51,745 students across 81 schools.
For a sense of the school types, Winston Salem / Forsyth County Schools spans 44 elementary, 17 middle, 18 high schools, and 2 combined or other.
On a per-school basis, Winston Salem / Forsyth County Schools runs about 639 students per school, 12% noticeably above the state mean of roughly 571.
Five-year track record. Across the same 4-year window, public-school enrollment held roughly steady: 51,843 students in SY 2020-21 versus 51,745 in SY 2024-25. Winston Salem / Forsyth County Schools now counts 79 public schools, up from 76 in SY 2020-21.
In the discussion threads here, the community for Winston Salem / Forsyth County Schools discusses comparison threads between local schools and program reviews. Discussions cut across districts, schools, and grade levels.