13 public K-12 schools in Kinston from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
National city placement
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Kinston has more public-school enrollment than 58% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Kinston sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.
Kinston's list includes 4 elementary, 2 middle, and 2 high-school campuses, plus 5 combined-grade records. The city average spans every major grade stage, so the ranked table is more informative when read within level than as one interchangeable queue.
98.9% of enrollment in reporting Kinston schools is eligible for free lunch, while the city list spans 2 districts. That pairing makes a citywide average especially easy to misread: the need measure follows students, but staffing decisions, calendars, program rules, and federal allocations are administered through separate district structures. The 62-point gap between Lenoir County Learning Academy and Children's Village Academy shows how much reported resource capacity can vary inside the same municipal label. Compare schools within the same district first, then use the city view to see how those local systems differ.
Kinston school enrollment ranges from 66 students (lowest) to 789 students (highest), a spread of 723 students. That spread reflects typical urban portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
The reported share is above 87.5%, so economic need is widespread across the measured student population. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Variation between sub-units within Kinston is typically wider than the Kinston-aggregate figure suggests.
| # | School | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Lenoir County Learning Academy | 76 |
| 2. | Lenoir County Early College High | 53 |
| 3. | Southwood Elementary | 46 |
| 4. | Kinston High | 40 |
| 5. | Rochelle Middle | 39 |
| 6. | Woodington Middle | 38 |
| 7. | Southeast Elementary | 38 |
| 8. | Moss Hill Elementary | 36 |
| 9. | Contentnea-Savannah School | 35 |
| 10. | Banks Elementary | 33 |
| 11. | Northwest Elementary | 30 |
| 12. | Northeast Elementary | 29 |
| 13. | Children's Village Academy | 14 |
Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.
Lenoir County Learning Academy has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Kinston schools in this federal-data comparison at 76/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
Kinston has 13 public schools with a total enrollment of 5,336 students. 1 are charter schools. Average student-teacher ratio: 16.1:1.
Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in North Carolina →
Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.
