Best High Schools in North Carolina

A teacher and two students give a thumbs-up in a classroom.

Find the best North Carolina high schools with SchoolDigger.com! Focused on test scores for accurate rankings, our user-friendly site simplifies your search. Empower your decisions by exploring top-rated schools, only on SchoolDigger.com - the ultimate guide to K-12 schools!

Year after year, SchoolDigger is always the first to publish North Carolina test scores and rankings. Other sites use stale test score data that are several years old! Be in the know with the very latest performance metrics.

The list is updated annually upon the release of the EOC test scores by the North Carolina Dept of Public Instruction. The most recent update was on Wednesday, September 4, 2024.

Be the first to know when we post new test scores and rankings!

School															Students/Teachers											Per Pupil Expenditures (2019)							Ranking (2024 vs 2023)
ID	Rank (of 640)	School	Type	Grades	Address	City	Zip	County	District	Is Charter	Is Magnet	Is Virtual	Is Title I	Phone	# Students	Full-time Teachers	Student/ Teacher Ratio	Free/Disc Lunch Recipients	White	Black	Hispanic	Asian	American Indian	Pacific Islander	Two or More Races	Per Pupil Expenditures: Total	Personnel from Federal Funds	Non-Personnel from Federal Funds	Total from Federal Funds	Personnel from State and Local Funds	Non-Personnel from State and Local Funds	Total from State and Local Funds	Average Standard Score (2024)	Average Standard Score (2023)	Rank (2023)	Rank Change from 2023	SchoolDigger Rating (2024)
370075003406	1	Chatham Early College	Public	9-12	501 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd	Siler City	27344	Chatham County	Chatham County Schools	No	No	No	No	(919) 663-5899	97	0		32.0%	58 (59.8%)	9 (9.3%)	17 (17.5%)	6 (6.2%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	7 (7.2%)	$2,517			$114			$2,403	97.4	96.3	5	4
370231003087	2	Crossroads Arts Sciences Early College	Public	9-12	476 N Center St	Statesville	28677	Iredell County	Iredell-Statesville Schools	No	No	No	No	(704) 978-0034	267	8	31.7	37.5%	155 (58.1%)	39 (14.6%)	40 (15.0%)	17 (6.4%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	16 (6.0%)	$7,670			$103			$7,567	97.2	96.3	4	2
370003002972	3	ABSS Early College at ACC	Public	9-12	1247 Jimmie Kerr Road	Graham	27253	Alamance County	Alamance-Burlington Schools	No	No	No	No	(336) 506-4001	221	8	26.7	35.7%	100 (45.2%)	25 (11.3%)	73 (33.0%)	9 (4.1%)	1 (0.5%)	0 (0.0%)	13 (5.9%)	$6,280			$165			$6,115	97	95.3	22	19
370192002629	4	Early College at Guilford	Public	9-12	5608 West Friendly Avenue	Greensboro	27410	Guilford County	Guilford County Schools	No	No	No	No	(336) 316-2860	195	9	22.9	9.2%	58 (29.7%)	21 (10.8%)	6 (3.1%)	100 (51.3%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (0.5%)	9 (4.6%)	$10,526			$188			$10,337	96.9			(n/a)
370210003139	5	Henderson County Early College	Public	9-12	300 East Campus Drive	Flat Rock	28731	Henderson County	Henderson County Schools	No	No	No	No	(828) 697-4561	205	7	31.5	46.3%	117 (57.1%)	3 (1.5%)	65 (31.7%)	10 (4.9%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	10 (4.9%)	$7,590			$759			$6,832	96.7	94.7	30	25
370162002521	6	Highland School of Technology	Public, Magnet	9-12	1600 N Morris Street	Gastonia	28052	Gaston County	Gaston County Schools	No	Yes	No	No	(704) 810-8816	514	41	12.5	28.0%	323 (62.8%)	71 (13.8%)	72 (14.0%)	30 (5.8%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	18 (3.5%)	$10,033			$715			$9,318	96.6			(n/a)
370294003487	7	McDowell Academy for Innovation	Public	9-12	54 College Drive	Marion	28752	McDowell County	McDowell County Schools	No	No	No	No	(828) 659-0411	113	8	14.1	51.3%	75 (66.4%)	7 (6.2%)	26 (23.0%)	1 (0.9%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	4 (3.5%)	$24,717			$228			$24,489	96.4	94.5	32	25
370204002873	8	Haywood Early College	Public	9-12	185 Freedlander Drive	Clyde	28721	Haywood County	Haywood County Schools	No	No	No	No	(828) 565-4000	176	7	25.1	42.0%	159 (90.3%)	1 (0.6%)	10 (5.7%)	1 (0.6%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	5 (2.8%)	$7,730			$690			$7,040	96.4	96.3	6	2
370472003637	9	Wake EC of Information & Biotechnologies	Public	9-12	RTP Campus/ 10908 Chapel Hill	Morrisville	27560	Wake County	Wake County Schools	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(919) 335-1350	125	11	10.8	15.2%	48 (38.4%)	25 (20.0%)	11 (8.8%)	33 (26.4%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	8 (6.4%)								96.3			(n/a)
370001102756	10	Cross Creek Early College	Public	9-12	1200 Murchison Road	Fayetteville	28301	Cumberland County	Cumberland County Schools	No	No	No	No	(910) 500-7551	246	12	20.5	57.3%	41 (16.7%)	116 (47.2%)	44 (17.9%)	14 (5.7%)	6 (2.4%)	5 (2.0%)	20 (8.1%)	$7,352			$641			$6,711	96	94.5	33	23

Sign up for updates!

Be the first to know when we update our rankings!

Other SchoolDigger ranking lists for North Carolina

Elementary Schools Middle Schools High Schools Districts Cities

New! SchoolDigger ranking lists for NC student subgroups:

Female Students Male Students Asian Students African American Students Hispanic Students Native American Students White Students Multi-racial Students English Language Learner Students Special Education Students Low Socio Economic Status Students Homeless Students Gifted and Talented Students Military Connected Students

About our rankings:

Schooldigger calculates school rankings based on EOC Biology, EOC English II, EOC Math I, EOC Math III test scores released by the North Carolina Dept of Public Instruction.
These rankings were last updated on September 4, 2024, and are based on the most recent test scores available. We update rankings as we receive new test scores from the North Carolina Dept of Public Instruction, usually on a yearly basis.
Our sources of data include the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education and the North Carolina Dept of Public Instruction.
For more information about our ranking process, please see our Ranking FAQ. Details about our methodology are here.

Educational resources:

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA): Transforming Education in America

A high school boy doing homework on a laptop

Virtual Schools: The Future of Online Education

SchoolDigger data sources: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Census Bureau and the North Carolina Dept of Public Instruction.