The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in Science. The lowest is 38% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Ward Elementary
Ward Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Winston-Salem, a mid-sized North Carolina city that has undergone substantial recent growth. The school sits in a zip code where home values have remained steady and modest rents reflect a working-class neighborhood fabric. Winston-Salem itself has reversed decades of population decline, adding residents and housing units over the past two decades through adaptive reuse of historic manufacturing buildings and ongoing downtown revival centered on the Innovation Quarter. The city combines a well-preserved downtown with major healthcare and research anchors, including Wake Forest School of Medicine and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist.
Ward's student population is predominantly economically disadvantaged, with nearly all students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment is small to moderate for its grade band, drawing roughly equal shares of Black and Hispanic students, with smaller populations of White and multiracial students and a small number of Asian students. The school reflects the economic and demographic character of its attendance area.
Academic proficiency on 2024-25 state testing shows mixed results across the three tested subjects. In English language arts, proficiency sits below midpoint, with about one-third of tested students meeting grade-level standards. Mathematics proficiency is slightly above that, with roughly half of tested students proficient. Science proficiency is the strongest of the three, with more than half of tested students at proficiency. These results suggest that while the school has pockets of strength in science, reading and math performance warrant close attention from families seeking a strong foundation in those core subjects. Testing participation appears good based on the number of students tested, though participation rate data is not available. Trend data for prior years is not available, so it is unclear whether these results represent movement or stable performance.
The district brief notes that Ward Elementary was among three schools where major bond-funded projects were postponed in 2022 due to doubled construction costs, with an expansion of the building's capacity put on indefinite hold. The district later secured additional county funding to close that shortfall without a tax increase, preserving funding for other renovations. For Ward families, this means the anticipated facility expansion has receded from the original timeline, though the immediate budget crisis was resolved.
A meaningful recent change across the district is the adoption of a modified academic calendar beginning in 2026-27, with school starting in early August rather than mid-August, ending in late May instead of early June. This shift affects childcare planning, summer program access, and alignment with standardized testing windows.
The Winston-Salem community context is relevant to any family considering Ward. The city's walkability is concentrated downtown and in the Innovation Quarter, with growing pedestrian infrastructure connecting to nearby parks and trails. Outside the core, sidewalk availability is sparse. The area supports a strong public library system, transit via the Winston-Salem Transit Authority, and a broad employment base anchored by healthcare, education, manufacturing, and business services. Housing affordability in Ward's zip code is better than county and state averages, though not substantially cheaper. For families looking at elementary schools in a historically industrial city undergoing revitalization, with a diverse, economically vulnerable student population and modest academic proficiency, Ward fits a particular profile.
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