Original Research by School Decision on Cardinal Charter
Cardinal Charter is a small district in Wake County serving students from Cary in grades K through 8, with a recent expansion into high school that now includes grades 9 and 10. The charter operates a single school, Cardinal Charter Academy, with an enrollment that breaks down fairly evenly across elementary grades and drops off in the middle and high school years.
The student body is diverse. Students of color make up nearly seven-tenths of enrollment. Black students represent the largest single group, followed by white and Hispanic students in roughly equal measure, with Asian students also well represented. No data on free-and-reduced-price lunch eligibility or English learner status was available.
State assessment results and proficiency data were not provided, so academic performance cannot be described from testing outcomes. The school does not serve high school grades through 12, which explains the absence of graduation-rate data; the recent addition of grades 9 and 10 is a structural shift but does not yet span a complete high school pathway.
Among Wake County's districts, Cardinal Charter falls into the bottom quartile for chronic absenteeism, at a rate notably higher than the county's median. Per-pupil spending sits in the lower range relative to other county districts. A parent may want to look into what drives the absenteeism rate and whether specific supports or approaches the school is taking address attendance.
The school's recent expansion to add high school grades 9 and 10 marks a shift in how families can stay within the charter beyond the middle grades. Previously a K-8 option, the school now creates a pathway for continuity, though it does not yet complete a full high school program through grade 12.
Limited public data exists for this entity. No information on programs, course offerings, staffing, or school environment was available. The school's website and recent expansion suggest active operations and growth, but the kind of academic pathways, supports, and instructional style that would help a parent or resident understand daily experience at Cardinal Charter was not in the provided records.
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