Equitable Education

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Education is important to long-term economic stability, yet access to high-quality, equitable learning experiences is not evenly shared across all students. This section examines key indicators of educational equity in Forsyth County, including graduation rates, test proficiency, perceptions of equity and inclusion within schools, school quality measures, and the economic returns associated with different levels of educational attainment.

Together, these data offer a wide-angle view of how students experience the school system and how academic achievement translates into economic outcomes later in life. They also highlight where disparities persist across socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, and gender.

Key Findings from the Community Cohort

The Community Cohort (Cohort) is a group of local women and people whose lived experiences reflect womanhood—especially Black and Latine parents—who helped shape this report by sharing their real-life experiences, priorities, and interpretations so the data reflects what thriving (and struggling) actually looks like in our community.

Multiple measures indicate that the school system serves students who are white and not economically disadvantaged more effectively than other student groups.

  • One cohort member observed, “Socioeconomic graphs for all of [the measures] have been really jarring. I mean, so we’re saying if you’re not economically disadvantaged, then you’re way up high graduating high school… It’s pretty grim.”
  • Another member asked, “Is it poverty that’s driving this or some other [cause]? I’m sure poverty is probably the root cause, but are there any other reasons or advantages that some children have over others?”
  • Some cohort members suggested that students from families that are not economically disadvantaged may have access to additional resources that help them be successful in school and prepare for tests.

Many education indicators shifted around 2022, and girls appeared to show declines in reading proficiency in 2025.

The cohort was surprised by the disparities in income among people with similar degrees, especially as the level of education increased.

  • One member observed, “The disparities by gender are just so prominent. No matter what, the man is going to make more income than the woman, even with the same education.”
  • Another noted, “I can’t help but notice that white, non-Hispanic males with less than a high school diploma make almost the same income as Black, non-Hispanic females and Hispanic or Latina females who have a bachelor’s degree.”

Even women of color who have worked hard and earned degrees struggle economically because of systemic barriers.

  • Discrimination in hiring makes it difficult for women of color to get jobs and be promoted.
  • Opportunities tend to be disproportionately focused on white people and those in privileged networks.
  • The cohort expressed admiration for Black and Latine women pursuing higher degrees, observing that this was necessary for them to earn a higher income.
  • One cohort member stated, “I don’t want to sound political, but there’s this big argument about DEI and about qualifications. And, when I look at this, that’s based on sex and race, with the diploma you have, it can be so varied… There’s so much disparity here. It doesn’t really matter if you have a degree, almost.”

The cohort also highlighted the role of student debt and the particular financial burden that it adds to women, particularly women of color, who may not earn as much as their male counterparts after earning a degree.

Learn More About the Community Cohort

The 2026 Gender Lens Report

Glossary Terms from this Page

The 2026 Gender Lens Report

Glossary Terms from this Page

MEASURES ON THIS PAGE

Graduation Rate

Student Proficiency

Equity and Inclusion

School Quality Measures

Education and Income

Graduation Rate

This measure is the annual four-year cohort graduation rate for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools (WS/FCS). The rate represents the percentage of students who graduate within four years of entering ninth grade, as reported by the district to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NC DPI).

The Community Cohort noticed that the graduation rate for 2023 was unusually high. Analysts followed up with the school system about this. The school system emphasized that with a graduating class of about 4,000, this change reflects a difference of about 80 students. They attributed this improvement to the use of graduation coaches provided by Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds and cleaning up documentation on where students enrolled after leaving the district.

Data Visualization

Graduation Rate (2020-2025)

Detailed Data Notes

Community Voices

One of the experiences that shaped me most was raising the daughter of a family friend while her mother was incarcerated. I went from being a struggling twenty-year-old student to a student responsible for another human being. It is expensive to raise children, and the challenges were immediate. She was bright and capable, yet there was no plan for her future until I intervened. No one was talking to her about college or helping her navigate her options. The system had quietly decided what was “realistic” for her. We had to push just to get her into the classes that would keep higher education an option. Without that advocacy, she would have graduated believing she had done everything right, never realizing how many doors had already been closed to her.

That experience reframed my understanding of poverty. It limits access long before a student ever fills out a FAFSA. When families are focused on survival, housing, food, and healthcare, there is little energy left to navigate a complex school system. Girls are often placed on predetermined paths early, and once tracked, it is incredibly difficult to change course. Graduation rates may look fine on paper, but they mask quieter barriers: the counselor who never mentions advanced placement, the assumption that college is too expensive to discuss, and the absence of an adult advocate.

Student Proficiency

This measure looks at Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools (WS/FCS) proficiency rates across three different standardized assessments used to assess student academic achievement from 2021 through 2025. Rates for the 3rd Grade Reading EOG Test represent the percentage of 3rd grade students in a year scoring at or above the threshold for grade level proficiency in reading. Rates for the 8th Grade Math EOG Test represent the percentage of 8th grade students in a year scoring at or above the threshold for grade level proficiency in math. Rates for the ACT represent the percentage of 11th grade students scoring at or above the composite score threshold of 19 set by the state.

The Community Cohort felt like it was important to provide context about how poverty interacts with test scores. Experts who study this have found a wide range of factors that result in children from high-income families having advantages that students from low-income families may not have. To list just a few examples, children from low-income families may not have the same access to programs that help prepare them for kindergarten as they start school and once they work their way through the school system they may not have as much access to academic support or other learning opportunities outside of school.

The cohort also had questions for the school system about some of the trends that they saw in the proficiency data. The school system indicated that proficiency scores decreased between 2019 and 2021, likely as a result of learning loss from the pandemic, and have steadily risen since then.

Data Visualization

Percent of Students with Proficient Test Scores (2021-2025)

Detailed Data Notes

Equity and Inclusion

This measure examines the perceived presence and effectiveness of equitable and inclusive practices within Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools as measured by three components from the Panorama Survey: Students’ Perceptions of Diversity and Inclusion, Parent/Guardian Perspectives of School Fit, and Teachers’ Cultural Awareness and Action Towards Students. Each component represents the perspectives of three different groups: students, parents, and teachers. Results are presented as the overall proportion of positive or affirming responses (as opposed to negative or neutral responses) to the questions for each survey component.

Data Visualization

Percent of Families, Students, and Teachers with Positive Perceptions of Equity and Inclusion (Fall 2022-Spring 2025)

Detailed Data Notes

Community Voices

Families also describe “costs of children” beyond tuition—supplies, snacks, uniforms, transportation—that determine whether children feel prepared and included at school. One caregiver recalls her own experience needing basic materials as a child from a “poor family”:

“There was a lack of supplies… they were mad about having to give it to me, like it was my fault.”

Here, lack of money directly intersects with dignity and belonging. It is not just that supplies are missing; it is that asking for help is treated as a problem.

Young people are growing up in a world where their identities are often questioned, politicized, or erased. Data may track school attendance or graduation, but it cannot measure the daily weight of being misgendered, bullied, or ignored by adults who are supposed to protect them. For queer and trans youth, mental health is shaped not only by household income, but by whether school feels safe, whether health care feels affirming, and whether the future feels possible.

Immigrant and multilingual caregivers describe language‑based shaming and pressure to assimilate in school settings:

“I knew both words… it was just so weird… ‘what is the English word for this?’”

“I stopped speaking Spanish… to be able to go to school… which we know now is not really how it works.”

These experiences, coded as Racialized Educational Environments and Curriculum, Culture, and Historical Erasure, operate on similar emotional ground as poverty stigma. In each case, children and caregivers receive the message that something about them—their language, culture, or family background—is wrong. This affects confidence, participation, and long‑term trust in schools.

School Quality Measures

School quality across the district over time is presented four ways. First, in terms of the percent of teachers with a graduate-level certification. Second, as the percent of teachers with no prior teaching experience. Third, as the percent of teachers with more than three years of experience, broken out by high-, middle-, and low-poverty schools. Fourth, as the distribution of NC School Performance Grades across schools.

Data Visualization

Percent of Teachers with Graduate Certification (2010-2024)

Data Visualization

Percent Experienced Teachers (2010-2024)

Data Visualization

Percent of Schools by School Performance Grade (2018-2024)

Detailed Data Notes

Education and Income

This indicator measures the median employment income of workers 25 and older employed full-time, year-round by their highest level of education. Employment income includes self-employment income as well as salary and wages. The median income is the income level that half of the residents are above and half of the residents are below. Analysts considered workers full-time if they reported working 35 hours or more per week, year-round if they reported working at least 50 weeks per year.

Data Visualization

Median Employment Income by Education (5-year periods from 2009-2013 to 2019-2023)

Detailed Data Notes