Best High Schools in North Carolina for Gifted and Talented Students

Check out our new feature available only on SchoolDigger: rankings for different groups of students in North Carolina!

Every year, the North Carolina Dept of Public Instruction shares test results for various student groups in each school. We use these results to find out which schools do best for each group and list them from the best to the worst.

Additionally, we also compare the performance of the subgroup to the performance of the school as a whole. This makes it easy to see if, for example, Gifted and Talented students are overperforming or underperforming their peers in each school.

Year after year, SchoolDigger is always the first to publish North Carolina test scores and rankings. Other sites use stale test score data that are several years old! Be in the know with the very latest performance metrics.

The list is updated annually upon the release of the EOC test scores by the North Carolina Dept of Public Instruction. The most recent update was on Wednesday, September 3, 2025.

Be the first to know when we post new test scores and rankings!

School														Students/Teachers											Per Pupil Expenditures (2019)							Ranking (Gifted and Talented vs All Students - 2025)					ID
Rank (of 412)	School	Type	Grades	Address	City	Zip	County	District	Is Charter	Is Magnet	Is Virtual	Is Title I	Phone	# Students	Full-time Teachers	Student/ Teacher Ratio	Free/Disc Lunch Recipients	White	Black	Hispanic	Asian	American Indian	Pacific Islander	Two or More Races	Per Pupil Expenditures: Total	Personnel from Federal Funds	Non-Personnel from Federal Funds	Total from Federal Funds	Personnel from State and Local Funds	Non-Personnel from State and Local Funds	Total from State and Local Funds	Statewide Rank Percentile (Gifted and Talented)	Statewide Rank Percentile (All Students)	Rank Percentile Difference from All Students	SchoolDigger Rating (Gifted and Talented)	SchoolDigger Rating (All Students)	ID
1	Cabarrus-Kannapolis Early Coll	Public	9-12	1531 Trinity Church Rd	Concord	28027	Cabarrus County	Cabarrus County Schools	No	No	No	No	(704) 260-6780	234	10	24.2	35.5%	87 (37.2%)	67 (28.6%)	49 (20.9%)	22 (9.4%)	1 (0.4%)	0 (0.0%)	8 (3.4%)	$7,514			$205			$7,309	99.8%	91.1%	8.65%			370053003159
2	Craven Early College High	Public	9-12	800 College Court	New Bern	28562	Craven County	Craven County Board of Education	No	No	No	No	(252) 637-5706	221	6	34.4	33.9%	126 (57.0%)	29 (13.1%)	33 (14.9%)	19 (8.6%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	14 (6.3%)	$7,415			$228			$7,188	99.5%	94.5%	4.97%			370331002843
3	Agriculture and Science Early College	Public	9-12	158 Raider Rd	Olin	28660	Iredell County	Iredell-Statesville Schools	No	No	No	No	(704) 876-4056	255	9	28	26.3%	178 (69.8%)	23 (9.0%)	40 (15.7%)	3 (1.2%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (0.4%)	10 (3.9%)	$7,260			$104			$7,155	99.3%	83.0%	16.28%			370231003432
4	Pine Forest High	Public	9-12	525 Andrews Road	Fayetteville	28311	Cumberland County	Cumberland County Schools	No	No	No	No	(910) 488-2384	1,551	59	26.1	65.3%	344 (22.2%)	757 (48.8%)	253 (16.3%)	34 (2.2%)	12 (0.8%)	4 (0.3%)	147 (9.5%)	$8,296			$894			$7,402	99.0%	65.4%	33.66%			370001100426
5	Highland School of Technology	Public, Magnet	9-12	1600 N Morris Street	Gastonia	28052	Gaston County	Gaston County Schools	No	Yes	No	No	(704) 810-8816	538	39	13.8	34.0%	327 (60.8%)	81 (15.1%)	75 (13.9%)	31 (5.8%)	1 (0.2%)	0 (0.0%)	23 (4.3%)	$10,033			$715			$9,318	98.8%	99.5%	0.75%			370162002521
6	Caldwell Applied Sciences Academy	Public	9-12	2857 Hickory Boulevard	Hudson	28638	Caldwell County	Caldwell County Schools	No	No	No	No	(828) 759-4640	218	10	21.1	33.9%	173 (79.4%)	4 (1.8%)	25 (11.5%)	4 (1.8%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	12 (5.5%)	$8,388			$210			$8,178	98.5%	82.4%	16.17%			370058002435
7	Wake EC of Information & Biotechnologies	Public	9-12	Wake Tech Community College	Morrisville	27560	Wake County	Wake County Schools	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(919) 335-1350	260	16	15.8	16.5%	88 (33.8%)	55 (21.2%)	19 (7.3%)	86 (33.1%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	12 (4.6%)								98.3%	97.2%	1.11%			370472003637
8	Marvin Ridge High	Public	9-12	2825 Crane Road	Waxhaw	28173	Union County	Union County Public Schools	No	No	No	No	(704) 290-1520	1,961	97	20.3	4.3%	1,193 (60.8%)	88 (4.5%)	97 (4.9%)	487 (24.8%)	3 (0.2%)	2 (0.1%)	91 (4.6%)	$7,144			$260			$6,884	98.1%	94.1%	3.99%			370462002845
9	West Stokes High School	Public	9-12	1400 Priddy Road	King	27021	Stokes County	Stokes County Schools	No	No	No	No	(336) 983-2099	799	51	15.6	44.7%	689 (86.2%)	11 (1.4%)	62 (7.8%)	2 (0.3%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	35 (4.4%)	$9,546			$707			$8,839	97.8%	71.5%	26.36%			370438002485
10	Johnston County Early College Academy	Public	9-12	245 College Rd	Smithfield	27577	Johnston County	Johnston County Public Schools	No	No	No	No	(919) 464-2314	251	7	34.9	98.8%	142 (56.6%)	22 (8.8%)	72 (28.7%)	5 (2.0%)	3 (1.2%)	0 (0.0%)	7 (2.8%)	$6,903			$137			$6,766	97.6%	94.7%	2.88%			370237003116

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Other SchoolDigger ranking lists for North Carolina

Elementary Schools Middle Schools High Schools Districts Cities

New! SchoolDigger ranking lists for NC student subgroups:

Female Students Male Students Asian Students African American Students Hispanic Students Native American Students White Students Multi-racial Students English Language Learner Students Special Education Students Low Socio Economic Status Students Homeless Students Military Connected Students

About our rankings:

Schooldigger calculates school rankings based on EOC Biology, EOC English II, EOC Math I, EOC Math III test scores released by the North Carolina Dept of Public Instruction.
These rankings were last updated on September 3, 2025, and are based on the most recent test scores available. We update rankings as we receive new test scores from the North Carolina Dept of Public Instruction, usually on a yearly basis.
Our sources of data include the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education and the North Carolina Dept of Public Instruction.
For more information about our ranking process, please see our Ranking FAQ. Details about our methodology are here.

Educational resources:

A high school boy doing homework on a laptop

Virtual Schools: The Future of Online Education

Public School Districts and Their Services: A Comprehensive Guide

SchoolDigger data sources: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Census Bureau and the North Carolina Dept of Public Instruction.