16 public K-12 schools in Salisbury 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, Salisbury has more public-school enrollment than 75% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Salisbury'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 Salisbury's 16 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.
The 34-point gap between Henderson High and West Rowan Middle shows the range hidden by Salisbury'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.
Salisbury school enrollment ranges from 71 students (lowest) to 986 students (highest), a spread of 915 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 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
Salisbury's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.
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 Salisbury is typically wider than the Salisbury-aggregate figure suggests.
| # | School | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Henderson High | 57 |
| 2. | Rowan Co Early College | 53 |
| 3. | Overton Elementary | 44 |
| 4. | Dole Elementary | 42 |
| 5. | East Rowan High | 40 |
| 6. | Hurley Elementary | 40 |
| 7. | Knollwood Elementary | 39 |
| 8. | Summit Virtual Academy | 38 |
| 9. | Salisbury High | 35 |
| 10. | Koontz Elementary | 34 |
| 11. | Isenberg Elementary | 30 |
| 12. | Erwin Middle | 27 |
| 13. | Southeast Middle | 27 |
| 14. | Knox Middle | 27 |
| 15. | Granite Quarry Elementary | 25 |
| 16. | West Rowan Middle | 23 |
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.
Henderson High has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Salisbury schools in this federal-data comparison at 57/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
Salisbury has 16 public schools with a total enrollment of 8,400 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 16.4:1.
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.
