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What advice would you give to incoming students at Penny Road Elementary?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
509
Elementary
DISTRICT 594 · STATE 467
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·WAKE COUNTY SCHOOLS·NCES 370472002223
Penny Road Elementary
10900 Penny Rd, Cary, NC 27518 · (919) 387-2136 · Wake County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYREGULAR SCHOOL509 STUDENTS
B-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 49% of North Carolina public elementary schools
- B+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- CBeats 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
13.4:1
38 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.5:1 · STATE 14.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
37%
188 students
DISTRICT 47% · 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 | 74 | 15% |
| Grade 1 | 82 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 96 | 19% |
| Grade 3 | 86 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 97 | 19% |
| Grade 5 | 74 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (74) is about the same size as its 5th grade class (74).
Student demographics
62%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
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
58.9%
NC avg 50.9%
Math
67.6%
NC avg 52.2%
What this means: On the NC EOG / EOC, North Carolina's statewide test, about 59 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 68 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
63.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
67.6%
based on NC schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-4.5pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 63% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 68% 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 Penny Road Elementary
Penny Road Elementary's state test result (63.0% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penny Road Elementary this school | 509 | 36.9% | 63.0% |
| Shamrock Gardens Elementary Charlotte | 532 | 32.1% | 65.5% |
| McDougle Elementary Chapel Hill | 497 | 31.4% | 70.2% |
| Cary Elementary Cary | 477 | 42.6% | 70.2% |
| McAlpine Elementary Charlotte | 535 | 29.9% | 71.7% |
| Oak Grove Elementary Raleigh | 553 | 33.1% | 64.5% |
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 Penny Road Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In North Carolina | In Wake County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 63.0% | #418 of 1,297 | #69 of 120 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 67.6% | #410 of 1,296 | #61 of 120 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 58.9% | #357 of 1,300 | #72 of 121 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 509 | #588 of 1,485 | #104 of 139 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.4:1 | #324 of 1,377 | #53 of 137 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 61.6% | #642 of 1,379 | #93 of 137 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 36.9% | #1,243 of 1,414 | #69 of 128 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -17.1% | #351 of 937 | #44 of 91 |
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
+26 (+5%) vs 2020
-29% since 1990-91, when it was 717
Student : Teacher
13.4:1
was 15.1:1
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 | 38 | 13.4:1 | 37% (188) |
| 2023-24 | 488 | 37.5 | 13.0:1 | 34% (168) |
| 2022-23 | 495 | 31 | 16.0:1 | 36% (180) |
| 2020-21 | 483 | 32 | 15.1:1 | 29% (140) |
| 2017-18 | 614 | 37.3 | 16.4:1 | 26% (162) |
| 2015-16 | 675 | 45 | 15.0:1 | 26% (173) |
| 2010-11 | 625 | 39 | 16.0:1 | 28% (176) |
| 2000-01 | 548 | 48 | 11.4:1 | 30% (166) |
| 1990-91 | 717 | 38 | 18.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Penny Road Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 17% (614 to 509); teachers up 2% (37.3 to 38).
About Penny Road Elementary
Penny Road Elementary is an elementary school with a street address in Cary, North Carolina. A federal count lists 509 students at the school, in kindergarten through 5.
Penny Road Elementary is one of the 198 schools that make up Wake County Schools (163,176 students in total).
By race and ethnicity, Penny Road Elementary is 56% White. The rest of enrollment is 21% Hispanic, 14% Black, 4% Asian, and 4% multiracial. The White share in Wake County as a whole is similar, at about 58%. Penny Road Elementary has a diversity index of 62%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
A ratio of 13.4:1 comes from the school's 38 full-time-equivalent teachers. For comparison, elementary schools in North Carolina average 14.9:1. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility was 37% in 2024-25.
allk12 grades Penny Road Elementary a B-. The grade compares the school only with North Carolina public elementary schools, because each state gives its own test.
On a poverty-adjusted basis, Penny Road Elementary falls in the middle 80% of North Carolina schools: 63.0% actual against 67.6% predicted.
Wake County has these Census figures: median household income is about $105,768, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 57% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 5%. The public schools of Wake County number 237 and enroll about 184,790.
The closest other public school is Oak Grove Elementary, about 0.8 miles away. There are at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Local comparison: Penny Road Elementary ranks 6th of 8 nearby schools, at 63.0% versus a 68.9% average.
On the NCES locale scale, the school is City: Mid-size.
Federal counts put enrollment at 483 in 2020-21 and 509 in 2024-25, a 5% increase. Federal data show the ratio falling from 15.1:1 to 13.4:1.
The Penny Road Elementary community page is open for posts about enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
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
- Oak Grove Elementary0.8 mi · 553
- Triangle Math and Science Academy1.3 mi · 1,904
- Lufkin Road Middle1.8 mi · 1,035
- Apex Middle2.9 mi · 867
- Apex High3.0 mi · 2,449
- Farmington Woods Elementary3.1 mi · 648
Frequently asked questions
About Penny Road ElementaryHow large is Penny Road Elementary?
Penny Road Elementary enrolls approximately 509 students in grades KG-05.
Is Penny Road Elementary an elementary, middle, or high school?
Penny Road Elementary is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
How many teachers does Penny Road Elementary have?
Penny Road Elementary employs 38 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 13.4:1.
What is the student diversity at Penny Road Elementary?
Student demographics at Penny Road Elementary are roughly 56% White, 21% Hispanic, 14% Black, 4% Asian, 4% Two or more.
What district is Penny Road Elementary in?
Penny Road Elementary is part of Wake County Schools.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.