Highlands School, Highlands NC - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Highlands School

Highlands School is a kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade regular public school serving a small mountain community with a seasonal character. Located on Pierson Drive, it enrolls a modest number of students distributed across all grades, with the highest concentrations in the early elementary years and notably smaller sections in the high school.

The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic enrollment. Roughly four in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school in a community where economic need is present but not overwhelming. The school does not report data on students with individualized education plans or English learners, so a parent seeking details on those populations would need to contact the school directly.

State testing results show proficiency below the midpoint. In grades three through eight, English language arts proficiency is the strongest subject in the most recent available data, with just over half of students meeting the state standard. Math proficiency trails that by several points. Science proficiency, measured on a smaller population of middle-grade students, sits slightly above the math result. These are not strong outcomes, and a parent considering the school should view these results as a clear signal to ask the school what academic support structures are in place for struggling learners and what trajectory the school is working toward.

The school sits within Macon County Schools, a small district undergoing a significant infrastructure transformation. A new Franklin High School broke ground in October 2024 and is replacing a campus from the 1950s with a modern, ADA-compliant facility designed to support up to several hundred students and include approximately thirty career and technical education classrooms. That new high school will serve Highlands School's high school population in the future. Alongside this, Highlands School itself is undergoing a paired renovation, representing the most substantial facility upgrade in the district's history.

Funding these projects has been complicated: county voters rejected a quarter-cent sales tax for schools in both 2022 and 2024, meaning the district is relying on property taxes to pay for capital improvements. Macon County currently has the lowest property tax rate in the state, a fact the county has prioritized preserving. Parents considering moving to the area should anticipate that as school debt is serviced and new facilities are completed, property tax pressure could increase.

The town of Highlands itself is a small mountain resort anchored by a compact, highly walkable downtown on a plateau in the southern Appalachians. The year-round population is tiny, but the town swells dramatically in summer with seasonal residents and visitors drawn to country clubs, second homes, and a thriving hospitality and retail core. Tourism and healthcare (anchored by a critical-access hospital) drive the local economy. New residential development is concentrated in luxury and gated communities for second-home buyers and retirees rather than primary-residence subdivisions. There is no public transportation within or through the town, so all movement depends on private vehicles.

Highlands School's enrollment is stable at around the low hundreds, typical for a rural K-12 that serves a tight catchment area. A parent enrolling here should expect a small school environment with limited peer diversity, both racially and economically, and should verify directly with the school what AP, dual-credit, or career pathway options exist for high school students, as such programs are not documented in publicly available sources. The school's academic performance is a soft spot and warrants conversation with administration about the school's improvement strategies and what resources are available to families whose children may need extra support in reading or math.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

80-89%Cohort of 36 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

637 schools plotted. 14 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grades 3-849%

School 49% · District 52% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grades 3-857%

School 57% · District 49% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Science

Grades 3-859%

School 59% · District 60% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median

This schoolMacon County Schools, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income31%Higher-income48%16 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income50%Higher-income65%15 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income46%Higher-income63%17 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income56%Higher-income76%20 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income42%Higher-income61%19 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income44%Higher-income52%8 pp gap