These are metro Charlotte’s best public K-8 schools for 2027, US News says
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Metro Charlotte is home to some of the top-performing K-8 schools in the state, according to new U.S. News & World Report rankings.
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Several elementary and middle schools in the area earned spots on the magazine’s 2027 best elementary and middle schools list, published Tuesday, Oct. 20.
Metrolina Regional Scholars Academy was the highest ranking Charlotte-area school in both categories, coming in second overall.
This year’s analysis looked at student performance in math and reading “across all proficiency levels,” U.S. News said in a news release sent to The Charlotte Observer.
The rankings draw on publicly available data collected from state education agencies by RTI International, plus data from the U.S. Education Department.
Among elementary schools, Wesley Chapel Elementary in Monroe placed sixth overall, followed by Rea View Elementary at No. 8 and Sandy Ridge Elementary in Waxhaw at No. 10, results show.
Telra Institute, a public charter school in Charlotte, also ranked in the top 20 among local elementary and middle schools.
“This refined approach gives families, educators and community leaders an even clearer view of academic achievement, helping them identify standard-setting schools and support continued success for all students,” Eric Brooks, U.S. News director of education data analysis, said in the release.
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Here are the Charlotte area’s top-ranked K-8 schools:
Charter schools are taxpayer-funded schools that are exempt from some of the regulations that traditional public schools are required to follow. Metro Charlotte is home to more than 40 of them, the Observer previously reported.
Unlike private schools that accept taxpayer-funded vouchers from the state’s Opportunity Scholarship program, charter schools are considered public schools, according to the Raleigh News & Observer.
For the 2024-25 school year, charters saw a 6% boost in enrollment compared to the previous school year, The Observer reported, citing data from the North Carolina Department of Instruction. In Mecklenburg County, around 16% of students were enrolled in charter schools for the 2024-25 school year, according to an analysis.
For the 2027 rankings, U.S. News evaluated schools based on students’ performance in math and reading on state standardized tests.
Half the formula analyzed test scores alone, while the other took students’ socioeconomic backgrounds into account.
Each school’s test scores were summed using four ranking indicators:
From there, schools were given a 0-100 overall score “reflecting how well each … ranked within its state on a percentile basis,” U.S. News said.
Portions of this story previously appeared in The Raleigh News & Observer. T. Keung Hui and Rebecca Noel contributed reporting.
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This story was originally published October 20, 2026 at 4:32 PM.
