Northside High

Northside High is a rural public high school in Pinetown, NC, serving 380 students in grades 9–12 as part of Beaufort County Schools. In 2025–26, the school ranked 280th out of 662 North Carolina high schools, placing it in the 58th percentile with a three-star rating. That makes it the strongest traditional high school in the immediate area, outranking Southside High (35th percentile) and Washington High (13th percentile) by wide margins, though it trails the district's selective Beaufort County Early College High (95th percentile).

Northside High's clearest strength is advanced math: 80.7% of students scored proficient on Math III in 2025–26, well above the state average of 68.9% and far ahead of Washington High's 34.3%. Biology proficiency reached 62.8%, also beating the statewide figure of 58.5%. The school's graduation rate was 90.8% in 2024–25, and chronic absenteeism sat at just 17.5% — dramatically lower than Southside High's 34.4% and Washington High's 34.0%. Since 99.2% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, these results signal a school achieving strong outcomes in a high-poverty context.

English II is the clearest academic weak spot, with 61.5% proficiency versus 64.6% statewide. Subgroup data also shows uneven results: African American students ranked in the 18th percentile statewide in 2025–26, and gifted students dropped to the 19th percentile after sitting near the 70th percentile two years earlier. Special education students and Hispanic students have posted stronger recent results. Overall, Northside High has trended upward from the 28th percentile in 2018–19 to its current 58th-percentile standing, reflecting genuine improvement. For parents, the picture is of a solid rural school with real strengths in math and science, strong attendance and graduation, and clear room to grow in literacy and in serving all student groups equally well.