The top reported proficiency rate is 92% in Science. The lowest is 66% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on William Ellis Middle
William Ellis Middle serves grades six through eight in Advance, an unincorporated community in eastern Davie County. The school sits in a quiet, suburban-rural area characterized by larger-lot residential neighborhoods, established farmland, and newer housing subdivisions attracting families to the Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad region. Advance functions as a bedroom community without an incorporated downtown; residents rely on Mocksville (the county seat, about eleven miles away) or Winston-Salem for most civic and commercial life. The school draws from a stable, car-dependent community where home values center on a suburban middle-class range, and the local economic base includes advanced manufacturing, precision machining, and logistics, with notable new industrial investment in nearby Mocksville.
The school enrolls a student body that is predominantly white, with a smaller share of Hispanic students and other racial groups represented. Roughly four in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a meaningful though not majority share. State testing data for the current school year shows proficiency rates across tested subjects. In mathematics, roughly three-quarters of students scored at proficient or above on the End-of-Grade test. English language arts proficiency ran lower, at about two-thirds of students proficient or above. Science proficiency was notably higher, with a strong majority of students proficient or above; note that science testing underwent changes in assessment format and cut score standards, so trend comparison is limited. Overall, the school's math and language arts results sit in the middle range for what middle schools in this grade band typically report, with science results stronger.
Enrollment data was not available for special populations including students with individualized education plans and English learners, which may reflect how the district tracks and reports these groups. The school does not report chronic absenteeism or discipline outcomes, so the full picture of school climate and student behavior support is not visible in the available data.
Davie County Schools has undertaken a district-wide shift to science-based reading instruction, with all K-3 teachers completing the state-mandated LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) training on top of the district's earlier literacy initiative. Within one school, reading and math proficiency gains helped move that school off the state's low-performing list, suggesting the literacy push is yielding measurable results. At the high school level, a major gift from the Golden LEAF Foundation is funding a new career and technical education facility with advanced manufacturing and robotics pathways, and students concentrating in CTE have shown markedly higher graduation rates than the school-wide average, pointing to demand for hands-on, credential-bearing pathways in this region.
The district has also shortened its property reappraisal cycle for homes, moving from the state's standard eight-year window to a four-year one. This means Davie County homeowners—and therefore school funders—experience smaller but more frequent shifts in assessed property value and tax bills. A family considering a move to Advance should factor this into the long-term housing and tax picture.
William Ellis itself is a straightforward middle school in a growing, family-oriented community. The proficiency outcomes show students performing solidly in mathematics and science, with language arts a softer spot. The district's recent emphasis on reading instruction and its expanded CTE pathways at the high school level suggest a system working to strengthen core academics and offer alternatives to traditional college pathways—changes that will flow through William Ellis as those students advance.
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