Hyde County Schools

The Hyde County Schools district in North Carolina operates two alternative schools, Mattamuskeet School and Ocracoke School, serving grades PK-12. While both schools face significant socioeconomic challenges, with high rates of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, Ocracoke School stands out as the stronger performer academically.

Ocracoke School consistently outperforms the district and state averages on standardized test scores across multiple grade levels and subject areas, with proficiency rates often 20-30 percentage points higher than the district. In contrast, Mattamuskeet School generally underperforms the district and state on test scores. This performance gap may be attributed to Ocracoke School's higher spending per student and lower student-teacher ratio, which could contribute to its ability to better support its diverse student population.

While both schools serve economically disadvantaged communities, Mattamuskeet School has an exceptionally high free/reduced lunch rate of 99.05%, indicating an extremely disadvantaged student population. Ocracoke School, on the other hand, has a lower but still substantial free/reduced lunch rate of 44.94%. The racial/ethnic diversity of the student populations at the two schools also varies, with Mattamuskeet School having a more racially diverse student body and Ocracoke School serving a majority Hispanic student population.