Terry Sanford High

Terry Sanford High is a high-enrollment high school in Fayetteville, North Carolina, administered by Cumberland County Schools. School enrollment was 1,201 students in 2024-25, in grades 9 through 12. For comparison, high schools in North Carolina average about 761 students.

Enrollment across the 86 schools in Cumberland County Schools totals 49,002 students.

Terry Sanford High has no majority group; Black students are the largest, at 47%. Other students are 26% White, 13% Hispanic, 8% multiracial, and 4% Asian. By comparison, Cumberland County residents are about 38% Black. Pick two students at random and there is a 69% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.

Terry Sanford High employs 50.1 full-time-equivalent teachers. That gives a ratio of about 24.0:1. This ratio sits 4.4 above the 19.6:1 average for high schools in North Carolina. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility was 64% in 2024-25. The gap from the 86% average for public schools in Cumberland County is 22 points.

allk12 grades Terry Sanford High a C. The grade compares the school only with North Carolina public high schools, because each state gives its own test.

After accounting for student poverty, Terry Sanford High is in the bottom 10% of North Carolina schools. Its average proficiency rate on state tests of 39.3% is 19.8 points below the 59.2% predicted for its lunch-eligibility share.

Among Cumberland County residents, the median household income is $61,291, 28% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 13% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Terry Sanford High is one of 89 public schools in the county.

The school nearest to Terry Sanford High is Alma O Easom Elementary, at a distance of about 0.5 miles. A five-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. Among the 6 closest schools with test data, this one included, Terry Sanford High ranks 5th on average proficiency.

In the federal locale system, Terry Sanford High is coded City: Mid-size, for schools inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.

Enrollment is up 4% from 2020-21, when Terry Sanford High had 1,154 students, to 2024-25, when it had 1,201. Its ratio of students to teachers was 18.0:1 in 2020-21, and 24.0:1 in 2024-25.

The Terry Sanford High community page is open for posts about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.