With the dawn of a new school year comes another set of annual rankings by Niche, aimed at helping pinpoint for parents where across the Charlotte region pupils can earn the best education.
The Charlotte Business Journal, as it did last year, will break down these rankings in a four-part series: public elementary schools, public middle schools, public high schools and K-12 private schools. Niche, a Pittsburgh-based research and review site, released the rankings on Aug. 5.
In this piece, CBJ will focus solely on public elementary schools across the area. The accompanying photo gallery provides a closer look at what Niche has ranked as those top 25 schools for 2020.
Nine schools on that list are part of the Fort Mill School District, which makes up 70% of the top 10 schools on the ranking. That's followed by six elementary schools that are part of Union County Public Schools and four schools in Clover School District of South Carolina. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools wasn't represented in this particular ranking.
In addition to traditional public schools, charter and magnets schools are also included in the ranking.
The top Charlotte-area public elementary school — Metrolina Regional Scholars Academy, a charter school in south Charlotte — also ranked as the best in North Carolina, according to Niche. Six Fort Mill elementary schools ranked among the top 10 in South Carolina: Gold Hill Elementary School, No. 2; Pleasant Knoll Elementary School, No. 3; Tega Cay Elementary School, No. 4; Doby's Bridge Elementary School, No. 5; Orchard Park Elementary School, No. 7; and Riverview Elementary School, No. 9.
For this particular set of rankings, Niche analyzed factors such as state test scores, student-to-full-time teacher ratio, student diversity, teacher quality, grade school ratings and the overall quality of the school district. It obtained its statistics from various sources, including the U.S. Department of Education as well as reviews from parents and students.
Niche assigned the most weight to the academics grade, which accounts for 50% of a school's overall grade. It also considered a school's teachers grade, 20%; district grade, 15%; cultural and diversity grade, 10%; and parent/student surveys on overall experience, 5%.