Summary:
The city of Whittier, North Carolina is home to a single school, Smokey Mountain Elementary, which serves grades PK-8 with a total enrollment of 353 students. The school's performance data suggests it is facing significant challenges in providing a high-quality education to its diverse student population, with consistently lower test scores compared to district and state averages.
Smokey Mountain Elementary has a student body that is 44.76% White, 14.16% Hispanic, 27.76% Native American, and 11.33% two or more races. The school's test scores are consistently below the Jackson County Public Schools district and North Carolina state averages across all grade levels and subject areas. For example, the school's 3rd grade math proficiency rate was 31.7% in 2023-2024, compared to 52.1% for the district and 62.7% for the state.
Additionally, Smokey Mountain Elementary has a high rate of free and reduced lunch recipients at 77.9%, indicating a significant portion of the student population comes from low-income families. The school's spending per student is $11,755, and it has a student-teacher ratio of 14.1, suggesting potential resource challenges that may be impacting its ability to improve student outcomes. Without additional comparative data on other schools in the area, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions, but the available information points to Smokey Mountain Elementary facing significant hurdles in providing a high-quality education to its students.
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