The top reported proficiency rate is 92% in Science. The lowest is 83% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Sherwood Forest Elementary
Sherwood Forest Elementary is a regular public elementary school in the Yorkshire area of Winston-Salem, serving kindergarten through fifth grade. The school enrolls a modest-sized student body across six grade levels, with the majority of students identifying as white, and a racially and ethnically mixed cohort that includes Asian, Black, Hispanic, multiracial, and other students. A small share of the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch.
The school's most recent state test results, from the 2024-25 school year, show strong proficiency rates across the tested subjects and grades. In math, the proficiency rate was well above three-quarters. English language arts proficiency was in the low-to-mid eighties. Science proficiency, which was only administered to a subset of upper grades, was very high. These results reflect solid academic performance across the board, with math as the strongest subject area.
The school is part of Winston-Salem / Forsyth County Schools, a large urban-suburban district covering the greater Winston-Salem metro area. Winston-Salem itself is a mid-sized North Carolina city undergoing considerable economic and civic revitalization. The downtown and Innovation Quarter areas, built on reclaimed tobacco-warehouse land, have become walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods with restaurants, breweries, and urban trails. The broader community includes major healthcare anchors (Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, Novant Health), Wake Forest University, and Winston-Salem State University. Manufacturing and logistics, financial services, and advanced technology also anchor employment.
Housing in the school's zip code sits near the county median, with single-family homes at moderate valuations and rental rates rising over the past year. Mortgage affordability is moderate relative to national benchmarks. The area has seen growth in both population and housing stock over the past two decades, with ongoing residential redevelopment of former industrial buildings and new mixed-income housing projects in the pipeline.
At the district level, families should be aware of a significant facility delay. In 2022, the board postponed three major bond projects—including a new middle school near Smith Farm Elementary and expansions to Griffith and Ward Elementary—because construction costs had roughly doubled since the bond passed. The county subsequently provided additional funds to preserve the remaining renovations and clarified a debt-leveling plan that could support a future bond referendum in 2028 without raising the property tax rate. That said, families in affected attendance zones will not see those postponed improvements on the original timeline.
Additionally, the district has adopted a modified academic calendar with an earlier August start (August 10 in 2026-27) and a late-May end, moving the school year forward relative to state statute. This change is now locked in and affects family planning around childcare, summer programs, and the school calendar's alignment with testing windows.
No state comparison metrics were available for this school because the comparison universe contained too few entities. The school operates as a neighborhood elementary school without magnet or charter status. Special-education enrollment and English-learner enrollment data were not available in this report.
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