High Schools in Pierce County

Pierce County High School is the sole high school in Pierce County, serving grades 9–12 in Blackshear, Georgia, with an enrollment of 1,053 students. This single-school district stands out as a high-performing institution despite serving a student population where nearly 78% qualify for free or reduced lunch, a strong indicator of economic need.

The school consistently outperforms state averages in most academic areas. Its graduation rate of 95.9% far exceeds the state's 87.2%, and its dropout rate of 0.9% is well below the state's 2.4%. In End of Course testing, the school shows remarkable strength in math and science: Algebra I proficiency jumped from 74.7% to 88.4% between 2024–2025 and 2025–2026, while the state average sits at just 48.1%. Biology proficiency, though dipping from 75.6% to 69.5%, still outpaces the state by more than 22 points. However, U.S. History is a notable weak spot—proficiency fell sharply from 53.1% to 36.8%, now below the state average of 38.5%. The school's state ranking has slipped from 22nd (95th percentile) in 2023–2024 to 50th (89th percentile) in 2025–2026, though it remains in the top 11% of Georgia high schools.

One area of concern is chronic absenteeism. At 16.3%, the school's rate is 40% higher than its district average of 11.6%, though it sits just below the state's 17.7%. This discrepancy suggests attendance challenges are more pronounced at the high school level than elsewhere in the district. With per-student spending of $10,679 and a 16.3:1 student-teacher ratio, the school achieves strong outcomes with moderate resources, indicating efficient use of funding. While the school's overall performance remains elite, the declining U.S. History scores and rising absenteeism are trends worth monitoring. Note that English Language Arts scores are not included in this release; the only available ELA-related metric is American Literature proficiency of 55.9% from 2024–2025, and no conclusions should be drawn from the absence of newer data.