North Carolina Department of Public Instruction on Sept. 2 released its 2025-2026 student performance reports, indicating an overall upward trend statewide and in The Smoky Mountain News coverage area.
Essentially, assessments starting in third grade measure math, reading, and science ability. Students are categorized into one of four levels based on their score. If level 3 (sufficient understanding) is not met, a child does not meet the grade-level proficiency benchmark. Alternatively, a career and college readiness designation requires meeting achievement level 4 (thorough understanding) or achievement level 5 (comprehensive understanding). According to NCDPI, retests were offered first in the 2024-25 school year; grade 3 reading, grade 5 science, and grade 8 science and biology retests were added in 2025-26. The composite ACT score dictating school performance grade calculations for ACT WorkKeys was also lowered from 19 to 17 this past year.
Trends among the four SMN counties — Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain — were strikingly similar. All counties’ 2025-26 grade level proficiency scores were the highest of the past five years, meaning broadly, more students district-wide are meeting basic proficiency benchmarks. However, the proportion of those meeting career and college readiness for every SMN county, despite showing improvement over 2024-2025, was the second lowest in five years. This indicates each district is trending up, but compared to 2021-2024, fewer students are reaching above-average benchmarks. Notably, because various demographic categories in all four counties had double-digit populations, certain year-to-year percentages varied widely.
In 2025-26, 59.2% of North Carolina students achieved grade-level proficiency, compared to 66.2% in Haywood, 50.6% in Jackson, 53.9% in Macon, and 49.3% in Swain.
While at the state level, female students reached proficiency at a slightly higher rate (1.5%) than males, the opposite was true in Macon and Swain counties. The discrepancy was significant in the latter district, with grade level proficiency achieved by 46.4% of female students and 51.9% of males. Swain’s students with disabilities, despite the district’s low overall score, were proficient at state-equivalent levels.
Compared to North Carolina, Haywood County’s achievement gaps among Asian, Black, white, Hispanic and Latino students were much less pronounced. Percentages of grade-level proficiency for homeless and disabled students hovered just above state average, and English-as-a-second-language learners were more heavily represented within proficiency scorers.
However, other categories of learners in Jackson, Macon and Swain disproportionately did not reach this threshold. Compared to North Carolina’s 31.6%, 18.9% of homeless Jackson County students, 19.6% in Macon, and a notable 13% in Swain scored at or above grade level. English learners were at a distinct disadvantage in Jackson and Macon — only 15.8% and 19.2% respectively achieved this benchmark. Alternatively, the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged peers was far smaller in these three districts than all of North Carolina. Economically disadvantaged students were similarly represented in Swain and Macon as the entire state, although both districts have below-average performance scores. Black students in Macon, Jackson, and Swain counties had proficiency metrics at and sometimes far above North Carolina average, while Hispanic and Latino students fared disproportionately worse. Only 20% of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) students were categorized as at least level 3 in Macon County, though just 10 students belonged to the AIAN group.
While Haywood bested the majority of its district counterparts in nearly every category, AIAN students were the outliers, achieving profiency at a rate 4.5% below average.
Career and college readiness scores 2025-26 were proportionally similar. Overall, 37.5% of N.C. test-takers reached level 4 and 5, compared to 42.7%, 29.8%, 29.8%, and 26.5% respectively in Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain Counties.
Haywood learners in every single category, including Alaska Native and American Indian, met readiness targets far more often than the average North Carolina student. However, homeless students were underrepresented, with 10.2% versus the state’s 13.7%.
Swain, Jackson, and Macon again had a larger percentage of economically disadvantaged students within their level four and five groups than the state overall, but homeless students were poorly represented (less than 5% in Swain County) and except for the westernmost district, so too were English learners (less than 5% in Jackson). While more slightly more male than female students (0.4%) reached career and college readiness in North Carolina, in Jackson County, female students out-represented males by 2.4%. In Swain County, that dynamic was reversed, with the proportion of female learners trailing the state by nearly 13%. Black students in every county scored at levels 4 and 5 well above state average (22%), and while only 37 tested in 2025-26 in Macon County, 48.6% were considered career and college ready. Hispanic and Latino learners in Swain and Macon counties were underrepresented within readiness groups and in Macon, the same discrepancy applied to AIAN students.