NCES CCD 2024-25 19 schools NC

Best-Resourced Schools in Morganton, NC

Compiled from official source data by .

19 public K-12 schools in Morganton from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
19
Schools
7,824
Students
41.9/100
Avg Resource Index
16:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Morganton has more public-school enrollment than 73% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Morganton 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.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

12 of Morganton's 19 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.

Campus spread matters more than the city mean

The 32-point gap between Forest Hill Elementary and Drexel Elementary shows the range hidden by Morganton's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.

City enrollment
Top 27%
School count
Top 16%
Resource Index average
55th percentile
Teacher staffing
43rd percentile

Freedom High accounts for 16.6% of all Morganton public-school enrollment

That concentration means Morganton-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

Morganton school enrollment varies 21× across entities

Morganton school enrollment ranges from 61 students (lowest) to 1,299 students (highest), a spread of 1,238 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

Morganton reports 66.7% free-lunch eligibility

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

Morganton student-teacher ratio is 16.0:1 — near the typical range (US average ~15.7) — citywide staffing is neither unusually lean nor unusually crowded by this measure

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 Morganton is typically wider than the Morganton-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Forest Hill Elementary 60
2. Hillcrest Elementary 52
3. Nc School for the Deaf 52
4. New Dimensions 50
5. Burke Middle College 48
6. Walter R Johnson Middle 46
7. Robert L. Patton High School 44
8. Table Rock Middle 43
9. Glen Alpine Elementary 43
10. Mull Elementary 43
11. Liberty Middle 42
12. Oak Hill Elementary 41
13. W a Young Elementary 39
14. Mountain View Elementary 35
15. North Liberty 35
16. Freedom High 33
17. Burke Virtual Academy 32
18. Salem Elementary 31
19. Drexel Elementary 28

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Morganton

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.

  1. 1 Freedom High 65.3/100
  2. 2 Mountain View Elementary 64.0/100
  3. 3 Burke Middle College 61.0/100
  4. 4 Forest Hill Elementary 59.3/100
  5. 5 Glen Alpine Elementary 58.3/100

What do families ask about schools in Morganton?

Which Morganton school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Forest Hill Elementary has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Morganton schools in this federal-data comparison at 60/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Morganton, NC? ▼

Morganton has 19 public schools with a total enrollment of 7,824 students. 1 are charter schools. Average student-teacher ratio: 16:1.

Other Cities in North Carolina

Charlotte
176 schools
Raleigh
99 schools
Greensboro
83 schools
Durham
68 schools
Fayetteville
68 schools
Winston Salem
64 schools

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.