1
What do students at First Ward Creative Arts Academy actually talk about outside of class?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
421
Elementary
DISTRICT 596 · STATE 467
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG SCHOOLS·NCES 370297001211
First Ward Creative Arts Academy
715 N. Caldwell St, Charlotte, NC 28202 · (980) 343-5485 · Mecklenburg County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL421 STUDENTS
C+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 44% of North Carolina public elementary schools
- C+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- B-Beats 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
14.7:1
29 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.4:1 · STATE 14.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
99%
418 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 | 53 | 13% |
| Grade 1 | 61 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 61 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 67 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 84 | 20% |
| Grade 5 | 95 | 23% |
This year's kindergarten class (53) is 44% smaller than its 5th grade class (95).
Student demographics
40%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
Test scores
NC EOG / EOC 2024-25 . % Grade Level Proficient (Level 3+)English Language Arts
45.5%
NC avg 50.9%
Math
55.1%
NC avg 52.2%
What this means: On the NC EOG / EOC, North Carolina's statewide test, about 46 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 55 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
51.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
48.5%
based on NC schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+3.2pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 52% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 49% 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 First Ward Creative Arts Academy
First Ward Creative Arts Academy's state test result (51.7% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Ward Creative Arts Academy this school | 421 | 99.3% | 51.7% |
| A.C.E. Academy Harrisburg | 421 | 97.9% | N/A |
| Ferguson-Easley Elementary Fayetteville | 392 | 95.9% | 32.5% |
| Lucile Souders Elementary Fayetteville | 399 | 99.2% | 38.6% |
| Carver Heights Elementary Goldsboro | 407 | 99.3% | 27.5% |
| Dabney Elementary Henderson | 385 | 97.7% | 31.1% |
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 First Ward Creative Arts Academy ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In North Carolina | In Mecklenburg County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 51.7% | #767 of 1,297 | #67 of 115 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 55.1% | #755 of 1,296 | #72 of 115 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 45.5% | #774 of 1,300 | #61 of 116 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 421 | #833 of 1,485 | #105 of 136 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.7:1 | #657 of 1,377 | #40 of 133 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 39.7% | #1,178 of 1,379 | #123 of 133 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 99.3% | #412 of 1,414 | #59 of 130 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -27.0% | #125 of 937 | #22 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
421
-160 (-28%) vs 2020
-34% since 1990-91, when it was 641
Student : Teacher
14.7:1
was 13.5:1
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 | 421 | 28.7 | 14.7:1 | 99% (418) |
| 2023-24 | 447 | 35.2 | 12.7:1 | 99% (442) |
| 2022-23 | 495 | 35.6 | 13.9:1 | 99% (492) |
| 2020-21 | 581 | 43 | 13.5:1 | 99% (578) |
| 2017-18 | 577 | 39.7 | 14.6:1 | 99% (573) |
| 2015-16 | 548 | 37 | 14.8:1 | 96% (527) |
| 2010-11 | 591 | 39 | 15.2:1 | 72% (424) |
| 2000-01 | 393 | 33 | 11.9:1 | 61% (239) |
| 1990-91 | 641 | 32 | 20.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for First Ward Creative Arts Academy.
Since 2017-18: students down 27% (577 to 421); teachers down 28% (39.7 to 28.7).
About First Ward Creative Arts Academy
First Ward Creative Arts Academy is a medium-sized elementary school that serves part of Charlotte, North Carolina. It serves 421 students in kindergarten through 5.
First Ward Creative Arts Academy is one school in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, a system of 186 schools with 145,014 students.
First Ward Creative Arts Academy's enrollment is 76% Black. Next come 13% Hispanic, 7% multiracial, and 3% White. That compares with about 30% Black among all Mecklenburg County residents. By the diversity index, First Ward Creative Arts Academy comes in at 40%.
A ratio of 14.7:1 comes from the school's 28.7 full-time-equivalent teachers. Across elementary schools in North Carolina, the average ratio is about 14.9:1. The lunch program counts 99% of students at First Ward Creative Arts Academy as eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Compared with the 71% average for public schools in Mecklenburg County, the school's rate is higher.
allk12 grades First Ward Creative Arts Academy a C+. The grade compares the school only with North Carolina public elementary schools, because each state gives its own test.
First Ward Creative Arts Academy is 3.2 points above its predicted average proficiency rate on state tests (51.7% versus 48.5%), which places it in neither the top nor the bottom 10% in North Carolina.
Census Bureau estimates for Mecklenburg County show that median household income is about $87,005, 49% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. A total of 226 public schools operate in Mecklenburg County, serving about 170,407 students.
The nearest other public school, Piedmont Middle School, is about 0.6 miles away. The count of other public schools within five miles is at least 8. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 57.3%; First Ward Creative Arts Academy's is 51.7%, ranking 5th of 8.
First Ward Creative Arts Academy is coded as City: Large in federal locale data.
Enrollment was 581 in 2020-21 and 421 in 2024-25, a decrease of 160 students. The student-to-teacher ratio went up from 13.5:1 to 14.7:1.
Topics for discussion here include sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
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 Charlotte
- Myers Park High SchoolHigh · 3,225 students
- Ardrey Kell High SchoolHigh · 3,036 students
- South Mecklenburg High SchoolHigh · 2,534 students
- East Mecklenburg High SchoolHigh · 2,422 students
- Palisades High SchoolHigh · 2,332 students
- Julius L. Chambers High SchoolHigh · 2,225 students
Nearby schools
- Piedmont Middle School0.6 mi · 1,108
- Metro School0.9 mi · 258
- Central Piedmont Early College0.9 mi · 278
- Hawthorne Academy of Health Sciences1.0 mi · 239
- Military and Global Leadership1.0 mi · 71
- Elizabeth Traditional Elem1.0 mi · 409
Frequently asked questions
About First Ward Creative Arts AcademyHow many students attend First Ward Creative Arts Academy?
First Ward Creative Arts Academy enrolls approximately 421 students in grades KG-05.
What grades does First Ward Creative Arts Academy serve?
First Ward Creative Arts Academy serves grades KG-05.
How many students per teacher at First Ward Creative Arts Academy?
Approximately 14.7:1 students per teacher at First Ward Creative Arts Academy.
What is the student diversity at First Ward Creative Arts Academy?
Student demographics at First Ward Creative Arts Academy are roughly 3% White, 13% Hispanic, 76% Black, 1% Asian, 7% Two or more.
What district is First Ward Creative Arts Academy in?
First Ward Creative Arts Academy is part of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.