Story originally published in The Sylva Herald, Sept. 23
Jackson County Public Schools improved their performance grades at four schools during the 2025-2026 school year.
Adam Holt, JCPS director of testing and accountability, presented the district’s state test results during the Jackson County Board of Education meeting Sept. 22.
All JCPS schools met or exceeded expected academic growth last school year. Blue Ridge School and Jackson County Early College exceeded growth.
Blue Ridge Early College, Cullowhee Valley Elementary School, Fairview Elementary School, Scotts Creek School, Smokey Mountain Elementary School and Smoky Mountain High School met growth.
“Those are things that we’re wanting to see,” Holt said. “That small, sustainable growth over time is what we’re looking for.”
Achievement scores and proficient rates count as 80% of the school performance grades, while the growth is only 20%.
Jackson County Early College moved from a B to an A, Smoky Mountain High School moved from a C to a B, and Cullowhee Valley Elementary School and Scotts Creek School both moved from a D to a C.
Holt said the district also saw increases in reading, math and science among students in grades three through eight.
“Specifically, eighth grade math, the EOG proficiency increased by more than 9 percentage points,” Holt said. “Then seventh grade reading, eighth grade science proficiency increased by more than six points. So, great job with our middle school students there.”
The district also saw growth in high school end-of-course proficiency.
“As a district JCPS increased our grades nine through 12, our EOC proficiency by almost 6, 5.9,” Holt said. “Specifically, Math 3 increased by 9.7 and biology by 13.6. So, again, great strides.”
Jackson County Early College has one of the largest increases in the district.
“Jackson County Early College increased school performance grade by 17 points, and exceeded growth as a school,” Holt said. “Their EOC proficiency is 91%.”
Scotts Creek increased its math grades three through eight school performance grades.
“Scotts Creek School increased their math, grades three through eight school performance grade by 10 points from the previous year and exceeded growth in math,” Holt said.
Blue Ridge Early College also increased its school performance grade by 10 points and exceeded growth in math.
Smoky Mountain High School increased its school performance grade by three points and improved its biology EOC proficiency by more than 12 percentage points.
“Smoky Mountain High School increased its school performance grade by three points and increased its biology EOC proficiency by more than 12 percentage points,” Holt said.
JCPS also performed above the state average on the ACT.
“Jackson County Public Schools has over 60% of our students who were able to meet that minimum 17 or higher on the ACT,” Holt said. “The state average is 54.5%.”
“If we were to rank all of the districts from top to bottom, that would be the 17th out of 115 across the state,” Holt said.
JCPS had a 51% composite score across subjects and grades, up 2.5 percentage points from 2024-2025. The district remained 8.6 points below the state rate.
“This is just the last five years,” Holt said. “Just do a quick, kind of glimpse, with some of our data over the last five years. It is something that are continuously working on.”
Students completed end of year testing in May and June. The NC State Board of Education publicly released data on Sept. 2.
Check out the Jackson County Public Schools Report Card for 2024-25
