Summary:
Graham County Schools, in western North Carolina, has just one high school serving the county: Robbinsville High, which serves 332 students in grades 9–12. Because it is the district’s only high school, its performance data are identical to those of Graham County Schools as a whole. The school’s most distinguishing characteristic is economic: 99.1% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, an exceptionally high poverty rate that provides critical context for understanding its test scores and state ranking.
Academic results are mixed but concerning. Robbinsville High ranked near the 39th percentile of North Carolina high schools in 2023-24 and 2024-25, but fell to the 15th percentile, a 1-star rating, in 2025-26. On 2025-26 state End-of-Course tests, the school trailed the state substantially: Math I proficiency was 25.0% (state: 42.1%); Biology was 34.7% (state: 58.5%); English II was 47.2% (state: 64.6%); and Math III was 50.7% (state: 68.9%). However, the prior year English II proficiency reached 62.9%, above the state’s 59.6%, and Math I hit 39.2%, above the state’s 34.4%, suggesting the school has demonstrated academic potential.
Other measures soften the picture. Robbinsville High posted a graduation rate of 88.5%, in line with the state rate of 88.8% in 2025-26. Its chronic absenteeism rate of 23.8% is close to the state’s 24.2% and well below the district-wide rate of 30.0%. The school also has a reasonable student-teacher ratio of about 15.1:1, and per-student spending was reported at $14,741, although that figure comes from 2018-19. Overall, Robbinsville High serves an extremely high-poverty community and currently faces real academic challenges, but its graduation rate, attendance, and staffing create a foundation worth building upon.
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