The top reported proficiency rate is 24% in Math. The lowest is 18% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Third Creek Middle
Third Creek Middle serves grades six through eight in Statesville, a manufacturing and commercial center in Iredell County that sits at the crossroads of Interstates 77 and 40. The school has a small enrollment and a student body that is predominantly Black and Hispanic, with nearly all students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The family composition speaks to economic conditions in the area and the particular neighborhoods Third Creek serves.
On state testing, Third Creek's proficiency results are well below the midpoint among the county's districts. In English language arts and math, roughly one in five students scored at proficiency in the most recent school year; in science, the proficiency rate was lower still. These are not the outcomes a parent would want to see. A parent may want to look into this further with the school itself, including what interventions the school has in place, whether staffing or resource constraints are in play, and what the trajectory looks like over time. The data does not offer multi-year trends that would show whether performance has been stable, declining, or improving.
The school's context matters here. Statesville itself is in a strong growth phase, with substantial new residential development in the pipeline and population growth outpacing the county. The community includes advanced manufacturing employers, healthcare anchors, and a historically rooted downtown with civic and cultural life. Housing is relatively affordable within the broader region, and the mortgage and rent affordability metrics suggest that families can find housing that does not consume an outsized share of income. This is a place where working families can establish themselves, though economic mobility varies. Third Creek's demographics and free-lunch rate indicate that the students it serves come from families with limited disposable income, which often correlates with challenges that compound within schools: student mobility, family instability, and competing demands on attention and resources.
Third Creek is a traditional public school within the Iredell-Statesville Schools district. The district is navigating significant change. A new high school, Weathers Creek, is opening in the 2027-2028 school year in nearby Troutman, along with a new elementary school. That expansion will trigger a major redistricting, the largest since the city-county school merger, and families are already factoring potential zone changes into home-buying decisions. The district has also adopted an early-start school calendar so students finish first-semester exams before winter break and align with community college dual-enrollment opportunities. These are the wider forces shaping school experience in this system.
The school itself sits on a campus outside the downtown core, as is typical for K-12 schools in Iredell-Statesville. Data on staffing, special populations like English learners or students with disabilities, course offerings, attendance, or discipline were not available, so a parent cannot assess those dimensions from this profile. The school's website, if it exists, would be a natural next step for learning about programs, clubs, leadership opportunities, and the day-to-day culture.
Third Creek is a place where middle-grade students in Statesville's residential neighborhoods attend school. The proficiency numbers are a real weakness and warrant serious conversation with school and district leaders about what is driving them and what support exists. At the same time, the school is rooted in a community with real assets: a growing local economy, affordable housing, civic infrastructure, and a district making intentional choices about calendar and capacity to serve its population.
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