Another year, another set of numbers, and once again the mountains tell a complicated story of educational achievement.
As in years past, Haywood County set the regional pace, with the highest-performing high school (Haywood Early College), the highest-performing middle school (Bethel) and the highest-performing elementary school (Riverbend) based on achievement scores issued by the Department of Public Instruction for schools in The Smoky Mountain News core coverage area of Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties.
Overall, Haywood slipped from its all-time high of sixth statewide — out of 115 public school districts — to 11th. During the past decade, Haywood’s public schools have rarely ranked outside the top 10.
What DPI calls the “school performance grade” includes more than a single number. Under the current model, “achievement score” counts for 80% of the school grade, while “growth score” counts for 20%. Elementary and middle school metrics are more limited, however high school performance includes not only academic achievement scores but also ACT/WorkKeys, Biology and four-year graduation rates.
A full list of all schools stats in the state is available by visiting public.tableau.com/app/profile/ncdpi.k12.gov.
HAYWOOD COUNTY
In recent years, SMN reporting tracked Haywood’s move from seventh to sixth statewide and documented gains across Western North Carolina as classrooms steadied after COVID disruptions. Those threads run through this year’s scores. During the 2024-25 school year, the county spent an average of $2,769 in operational funding on each of its 6,487 students.
The achievement score snapshot shows the full span of outcomes this year, with the county’s three public high schools again earning high marks despite tremendous disruption due to Hurricane Helene last September.
At the upper end is Haywood Early College at 98.3, with Pisgah High School following at 79.9 and Tuscola High School at 75.3. Central Haywood High School, the county’s alternative school designed to serve students who may not thrive in traditional high school environments, came in at 57.1.
The comparison between the four high schools isn’t exactly apples-to-apples, as Haywood Early College — one of several “early college” programs across the region — is designed to give motivated students the chance to earn both a high school diploma and up to two years of transferable college credit, or even an associate degree at no cost while still in high school, through a partnership with Haywood Community College.
Haywood Early College ranks as the top school of any grade span in NCDPI’s western region, narrowly edging out Buncombe County’s Nesbitt Discovery Academy at 98.0. Since its founding in 2006, the program has been so successful that county officials are now considering an “innovative middle school” to give dedicated students an opportunity for more advanced coursework.
Pisgah remains the top non-early college public high school in the entire western region.
Haywood’s middle schools are essential feeders to Pisgah, Tuscola and the early college and all share some of the credit for high achievement in the county’s high schools. Bethel Middle School was tops in the SMN coverage area with a 72.2 achievement score, followed by Canton Middle School at 59.9 and Waynesville Middle School at 54.9.
Haywood’s elementary schools, in turn, feed the middle schools. Chronic overperformer Riverbend Elementary posted an 85.3 achievement score, good for top marks in the entire western region, although the score represents a decline from its 2023 mark of 93.5.
Junaluska Elementary’s 73.9 represents a 1.6-point improvement over 2024. Bethel Elementary’s 70.9 score is a big contributor to the performance of Bethel Middle and Pisgah High but is slightly off its 2023 tally of 74.1
“Everyone did a phenomenal job getting us to where we are, even with the 21 days we missed due to the hurricane,” said Chuck Francis, longtime chair of the Haywood County School board. “We’ve tried to offer board support for administrators and to use resources wisely.”
Francis has presided over one of the greatest stories in Western North Carolina educational circles in the past three decades — when he first joined the board 25 years ago, the district ranked somewhere in the 40s. Now, it’s consistently among the top 10% of public school districts in the state. Francis said that although the loss of classroom time did have an impact on this year’s scores, the district still performed well because it doesn’t micromanage administrators or teachers.
“We just stay out of their way,” Francis said.
North Canton (68.1), Hazelwood (61.6), and Jonathan Valley (60.5) round out the roster of high performers, with Clyde and Meadowbrook dropping to post-COVID lows of 50.0 and 46.0, respectively.
JACKSON COUNTY
As in Haywood County, Jackson County’s Early College is the highest performing school by achievement score with a 76.3 mark, but that’s significantly lower than its 2023 post-COVID high mark of 87.5.
The county’s Blue Ridge Early College, however, was one of the region’s worst, with a 40.2 achievement score. The school has never scored above 50.0 in the post-COVID era, and is down from 2024’s 40.4.
Superintendent Dana Ayers did not return multiple calls asking about the scores.
Among upper-grade schools, Blue Ridge School earned a 60.3, while Smoky Mountain High School was the strongest performer of the traditional schools with a 65.1. The school had earned a 66.1 score in 2022, a 65.4 score in 2023 and a 64.2 last year, showing that it’s moving in the right direction; however, these results indicate that at the middle and high school levels, achievement scores trend higher overall than in the elementary grades, though the variation between schools remains significant.
In Jackson County’s elementary schools, Smokey Mountain Elementary posted the lowest achievement score in the SMN coverage area at 32.9, while Cullowhee Valley and Scotts Creek performed somewhat better at 45.3 and 46.1, respectively. Fairview School scored notably higher with 57.7, showing stronger outcomes compared with its elementary peers but still down from a post-COVID high of 60.5.
Jackson County spends $2,361 in operational funding for each of its 3,424 students.
MACON COUNTY
Again — and as in Haywood and Jackson counties — Macon County’s Early College High School was the top performer in the county and among the top in the region with a solid 83.8 achievement score, down from a post-COVID high of 89.2 in 2022 but up significantly from 2024’s 74.6.
Macon Virtual Academy, an online public high school offered by the school district, also showed strong performance with an achievement score of 81.1 — an incredible gain from scores of 29.4 and 30.5 in 2022 and 2024, respectively.
Franklin High School weighed in with a respectable 70.0, trailing only Macon’s and Haywood’s high schools in the SMN coverage area.
Macon County’s middle-grade schools posted modest results, with Macon Middle School earning an achievement score of 50.6 and Mountain View Intermediate close behind at 49.2. These scores place both schools in the lower half of the county’s performance spectrum, suggesting that students in the middle grades may face more challenges compared with their peers at other levels.
Elementary school results varied widely across the district. South Macon Elementary stood out with a strong 60.8, narrowly topping Cartoogechaye Elementary at 60.2. Iotla Valley Elementary posted a mid-range score of 52.6, while Highlands School, which serves multiple grade levels, came in at 54.3.
At the lower end, East Franklin Elementary recorded a 48.2, and Nantahala School scored 47.6, both trailing the county’s highest-performing elementary schools by more than 10 points.
Superintendent Josh Lynch did not respond to multiple inquires from SMN about the scores.
Macon County spends $2,375 in operational funding on each of its 4,417 students.
SWAIN COUNTY
Swain County’s lone public high school, Swain County High, reported an achievement score of 64.2 — a strong performance given the relatively poor scores of its feeders.
Superintendent Mark Sale did not respond to multiple calls about the scores.
Swain West Elementary, the weakest performer in the county and one of the worst in the region, posted an achievement score of 40.2. Its sister school, Swain West Elementary, earned 51.9. Swain Middle School earned an achievement score of 46.1, keeping them all well below most of their contemporaries in the SMN coverage area.
Additionally, Swain County does not post its annual budget online, making it difficult for the public to ascertain the level of per-student funding.
CHARTER SCHOOLS
In 1996, the North Carolina General Assembly authorized the creation of charter schools, establishing them as publicly funded schools of choice with more operational independence than traditional district schools — although they receive taxpayer funds, they remain unaccountable to taxpayers because their governing boards are not elected by taxpayers, as they are in traditional public schools.
A major change came in 2011 when another NCGA bill removed the statewide cap of 100 charters, spurring rapid growth. Supporters of charter schools say they empower parents by giving them broader educational choices, while critics argue they divert taxpayer dollars from high-performing public schools to low-performing private institutions, undermining the financial stability of the state’s traditional system and jeopardizing the quality of education for traditional public school students.
According to the NCDPI’s 2025 school report, there are 206 charter schools in the state. Not one of them outperformed Haywood Early College in 2025. Only 24 outperformed Pisgah High School, and only 37 outperformed Tuscola High School.
In the NCDPI’s western region, there are 15 public charter schools. Three of the four counties in the SMN coverage area have a public charter school — Haywood, Jackson and Swain.
Swain County’s Mountain Discovery School, which offers multiple grade levels, earned an achievement score of 56.0, far below Swain County High School’s 64.2 but above the county’s elementary and middle schools.
Jackson County’s Summit Charter School, which also draws students from Macon County due to its location in Cashiers, earned a 72.4 and as such is the only public charter school in the SMN coverage area to outperform any of its counties’ traditional public high schools, although the Jackson and Macon early colleges still surpass Summit’s achievement score. Blue Ridge Early College, however, remains an outlier at just 40.0.
Jackson County also has the only “lab school” west of Appalachian State University — part of a state initiative created by the NC General Assembly in 2016. One of the goals was to “improve student performance in local school administrative units with low-performing schools,” according to northcarolina.edu.
These schools are operated by UNC system universities in partnership with local school districts. Although not technically a charter school, the Catamount School is not technically a public school, either. Offering grades 6-8 and an achievement score of 60.0, it remains competitive with county and regional middle schools.
Haywood County’s only public charter school, Shining Rock Classical Academy, earned an achievement score 53.6.
Of the county’s 16 public schools, Shining Rock placed 14th.
Of the 15 charter schools in the NCDPI’s western region, Shining Rock placed 13th.
Of the state’s 206 charter schools, Shining Rock placed 127th.
Since COVID, the school has consistently ranked among the worst in Haywood County, achievement-wise, never topping a score of 55.8.