The top reported proficiency rate is 73% in Science. The lowest is 63% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Oak Grove Elementary
Oak Grove Elementary is a small elementary school on Penny Road in an eastern Raleigh neighborhood, serving prekindergarten through fifth grade. The enrollment is distributed fairly evenly across the grade bands, with kindergarten and the primary grades forming the largest cohorts.
The student body is diverse. White students make up about half the school; Black and Hispanic students together account for roughly one-third, and Asian students are also substantially represented. A meaningful share of families qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a range of economic backgrounds in the school's catchment area. Enrollment data for English learners and special education services was not available; a parent may want to check directly with the school on these populations.
In reading and math, Oak Grove's proficiency rates on North Carolina's End-of-Grade tests sit in the low-to-mid range. On the most recent testing year, about six in ten students met proficiency in both subjects. Science results were notably stronger, with about seven in ten students proficient. It is worth noting that science testing changed assessment format and cut scores that year, making year-to-year comparison unclear; a parent might ask the school for context on what those scores mean in practice and how the school is currently addressing reading and math proficiency.
The school is part of Wake County Schools, a large district serving Raleigh and surrounding communities. Wake has undertaken a district-wide push toward science-of-reading instruction, and all prekindergarten through fifth grade teachers completed state-mandated LETRS training. That pedagogical commitment is now shaping curriculum and resource decisions across the district's roughly hundred elementary schools, which may benefit early readers at Oak Grove. The district has also adopted a new cellphone policy for the 2025-26 year, requiring elementary students to keep devices silenced and stored throughout the day.
Reassignment risk is a real factor in any Wake County school choice. The district approved a major reassignment plan in November 2025 affecting a large number of schools and students district-wide, taking effect in 2026-27; about three-quarters of affected families are eligible for a stability transfer. Oak Grove's catchment area should be checked against the published reassignment maps, since families in growing or consolidating areas may face reassignment in coming years.
The Penny Road location sits in an eastern Raleigh neighborhood where housing values are moderate relative to Raleigh's broader market, and rental costs are relatively stable. Raleigh itself is in rapid growth mode, with substantial new mixed-use development underway downtown, in the North Hills area, and across neighborhoods. The city's tech economy centers on employers like Red Hat, IBM, Cisco, and the Research Triangle Park, alongside healthcare and higher education anchors. Most of Raleigh is car-dependent, though downtown and a few historic neighborhoods offer walkable blocks.
Comparison data positioning Oak Grove among Wake County's districts was not applicable, since the school-level comparison set was too small to yield meaningful benchmarks. A parent wanting to understand how the school's proficiency rates stack up would need to compare Oak Grove directly against other elementary schools in the district or state using publicly available dashboards.
See more original research from School Decision →