Best Public Schools in Washington, NC

Washington, North Carolina, a small city in eastern North Carolina, is served by seven public schools enrolling 3,407 students in grades PK-12: three elementary schools, one middle school, two high schools, and one K-12 alternative school. Six of the seven campuses belong to Beaufort County Schools, a three-star district ranked 95th of 246 districts statewide, while Washington Montessori operates as its own district. The feeder pattern is unusual: Eastern Elementary serves PK-1, John C Tayloe Elementary serves grades 2-3, John Small Elementary serves grades 4-5, P S Jones Middle serves grades 6-8, and students then move to Washington High or Beaufort County Early College High.

Parents comparing schools will see enormous differences in outcomes. Beaufort County Early College High is the clear academic leader: ranked 35th of 662 high schools with a 5-star rating, its 2025-26 proficiency rates reach 97.1% in English II and 98.7% in Math III, far above state averages. Remarkably, it achieves this with a 98.93% free/reduced lunch rate and the lowest per-pupil spending in the group ($6,887). Washington Montessori also shines in elementary and middle grades, with 3rd grade reading at 77.3% and 8th grade math at 73.5% in 2024-25, alongside the best student-teacher ratio (12.4:1) and a low 13.4% chronic absenteeism rate.

Conversely, Washington High ranks 573rd of 662 high schools with 1 star: Math I proficiency is just 23.2%, Math III is 34.3%, graduation rate is 86.0%, and 34% of students are chronically absent. P S Jones Middle and John Small Elementary also trail district and state averages in nearly every tested subject, with chronic absenteeism at 32.9% and 22.7%. Since all six district schools report about 99% free/reduced lunch eligibility, poverty alone does not explain these gaps. The two strongest schools have the lowest chronic absenteeism, and the two largest traditional schools have the highest; Beaufort County Early College High outperforms Washington High by about 60 percentage points on the same End-of-Course exams. The takeaway for parents: school choice matters enormously in this small city, and attendance and school model appear to matter more than spending or demographics.