The top reported proficiency rate is 18% in Science. The lowest is 7% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Lake Forest Academy
Lake Forest Academy is a small alternative school serving grades 1 through 8 in Wilmington, with a student body of roughly 40 students. The school sits in a distinctive position within New Hanover County Schools: it is openly designed to serve students whose needs or circumstances are not well met in traditional classroom settings, and its enrollment and testing results reflect that purpose.
The academic picture is direct and demands transparency. State testing data from the most recent year shows math proficiency in the single digits, with no students meeting the proficiency threshold in English language arts. Science results from an earlier year were similarly low. These are not the numbers of a school optimizing for grade-level mastery in the conventional sense. A parent considering Lake Forest Academy needs to ask the school directly what its educational model is, what population it serves, and what success looks like in that context. Alternative schools often serve students with learning differences, behavioral support needs, trauma histories, or other barriers that mean state standardized testing is not the right measure of their work. The school's alternative designation is explicit in its charter, so this misalignment between traditional testing and school mission is likely by design, but only the school can explain what the design actually is.
The enrollment picture underscores this. A substantial share of students, roughly 93 percent, qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating concentrated economic need. The student body is racially diverse, with roughly equal shares of Black and white students and smaller representation from multiracial, Hispanic, and Native American students. The school runs only grades 1 through 8 (no kindergarten is currently enrolled), so it has no graduation rate to report.
Wilmington itself is a growing mid-sized coastal city of sustained expansion, with a walkable downtown riverfront core and a wider metro area anchored by healthcare, GE Hitachi Nuclear, the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and fintech firms like nCino. Housing costs have climbed sharply over the past decade, and affordability is now a top resident concern. The broader district is planning substantial facility investment through a referendum ballot measure in November 2026, with a new elementary school planned for the Riverlights area and replacements for aging middle and elementary buildings. That context of growth and reinvestment is real, but it has not yet materially changed the resource situation at Lake Forest Academy, where enrollment remains quite small.
For a family, the key questions are what Lake Forest Academy's actual pedagogical model is, what student population it intentionally serves, what its staff expertise includes, and what its placement and outcomes data show for graduates who move on. State testing numbers alone will not answer those. A conversation with the school's leadership is essential before enrollment.
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