13 public K-12 schools in Lenoir 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, Lenoir has more public-school enrollment than 55% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Lenoir's average Resource Investment Index falls in the lower portion of the 4,487-city comparison set. The index is a resource snapshot, not an academic grade: it reflects the federal staffing, counselor, gifted-program, and attendance fields available for local campuses. The most useful next step is to open the individual schools below and identify which component is pulling each score down, because the same city average can hide very different campus-level constraints.
7 of Lenoir's 13 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.
Lenoir's average Resource Investment Index sits at the 30th percentile, while its teacher-staffing measure sits at the 69th percentile. The 39-point percentile gap is a reminder that the index is not a class-size score: counselors, gifted-program reporting, and attendance also affect it. Compare those components directly when two schools have similar index totals; the same headline score can arise from a different mix of reported resources.
That concentration means Lenoir-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Lenoir school enrollment ranges from 29 students (lowest) to 818 students (highest), a spread of 789 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. 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 sits between 62.5% and 75%, above a simple majority but below the highest descriptive band used here. 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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
| # | School | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Horizons Elementary | 70 |
| 2. | Kings Creek Elementary | 44 |
| 3. | West Caldwell High | 43 |
| 4. | Whitnel Elementary | 40 |
| 5. | Happy Valley Elementary | 40 |
| 6. | Davenport a+ School | 36 |
| 7. | Lower Creek Elementary | 35 |
| 8. | Gamewell Middle | 31 |
| 9. | Gamewell Elementary | 30 |
| 10. | William Lenoir Middle | 29 |
| 11. | Valmead Elementary | 29 |
| 12. | Hibriten High | 27 |
| 13. | Oak Hill Charter School | 16 |
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.
Horizons Elementary has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Lenoir schools in this federal-data comparison at 70/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
Lenoir has 13 public schools with a total enrollment of 5,009 students. 1 are charter schools. Average student-teacher ratio: 13.8:1.
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.
