The top reported proficiency rate is 64% in Science. The lowest is 61% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Poe Elementary
Poe Elementary is a small elementary school serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in central Raleigh, located on Peyton Street. Its student body is racially and economically diverse. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school's racial makeup is roughly evenly split between Black, Hispanic, and white students, with smaller populations of Asian students and other groups represented.
On the most recent state assessments in grades three through five, proficiency in English language arts and math each hovered around the lower-to-middle range for the grade span. Science proficiency was somewhat higher. These results reflect a school where a meaningful portion of the student body has not yet reached proficiency on state measures, a reality that parents may want to look into further with the school to understand what instructional approaches are in place and what family supports the school offers.
Raleigh itself is North Carolina's capital and has transformed significantly in recent years. The city mixes a dense downtown core with historic neighborhoods and spreading suburban-style development. Downtown is organized into distinct districts, each with its own character: Fayetteville Street anchors the civic core with office towers and dining, the Warehouse District offers mixed-use loft conversions, Moore Square and Nash Square anchor public squares, and Glenwood South is an entertainment corridor. Beyond downtown, Midtown near North Hills offers pockets of walkable retail and residential blocks, but most of Raleigh is car-dependent. The city has robust public transit through GoRaleigh's fixed bus routes and circulator service, and a bus rapid transit system is under development.
Raleigh's economy is anchored by tech, healthcare, higher education, and government. WakeMed Health and Hospitals is the region's largest employer; NC State University, IBM, Cisco, Red Hat (headquartered here), Lenovo, and Fidelity Investments are major local and regional employers. Research Triangle Park, a short drive away, houses major operations for Apple, Google, and Microsoft. The city is in an aggressive growth phase, with major residential and mixed-use development across downtown, the Warehouse District, and Midtown, including projects like North Hills Innovation District and The Exchange. Housing values in the area are above the state benchmark but below the national average, and rental costs remain moderate relative to purchase prices, though both have ticked upward.
Wake County Schools, Poe's parent district, is a large system managing growth through ongoing student reassignments to accommodate new schools and changing neighborhood demand. The district approved a substantial school construction bond in November 2022 that has funded five new schools and renovations to existing ones. In June 2025, the district adopted its first system-wide cellphone policy, requiring elementary and middle school students to keep phones silenced and stored away all day. The district has also made a foundational shift to Science of Reading instruction at all elementary levels, with teachers trained through the LETRS program. These changes reflect an active district working through both infrastructure growth and instructional priorities.
State testing data for grades tested was available. No data on chronic absenteeism, multi-year trends, or special education and English learner enrollment counts were provided in the available sources.
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