Bunker Hill High

Bunker Hill High is a public high school in Claremont, NC, serving 845 students in grades 9–12 as part of Catawba County Schools. While the district itself ranks in the 65th percentile statewide, Bunker Hill has slid sharply in recent years—falling from the 49th percentile in 2022-23 to the 22nd percentile in 2025-26—making it the weakest-performing non-magnet high school among its nearby district peers.

Academically, Bunker Hill trails both district and state averages in all four End-of-Course subjects. Its most glaring weakness is Math III, where just 44.9% of students scored proficient, compared with a 67.9% district average and 68.9% statewide. Every nearby school with reported data outperformed Bunker Hill on Math III, including Bandys High (83.0%), Saint Stephens High (68.9%), and Newton-Conover High (58.6%). Biology (42.5%) and English II (53.8%) proficiency are also well below the district, and Math I proficiency (39.1%) falls short of both district and state averages. Nearly all of the school's students (99.64%) come from low-income households, yet nearby Saint Stephens serves an almost identical poverty rate and still outperforms Bunker Hill by 9–24 percentage points on most tests.

There are some encouraging signs. Bunker Hill's graduation rate has climbed from 81.5% in 2022-23 to 88.8%, now matching the state average, and chronic absenteeism has improved from 30.7% to 23.9%. However, subgroup effectiveness ratings show that nearly every group of students—across gender, economic status, and special education—scores in the bottom quarter statewide. Even areas that were previously strong, like English Language Learners and Gifted students, have dropped from the mid-80s to the 46th percentile. In short, Bunker Hill is keeping more students in school and graduating them, but measured academic mastery, particularly in math, is heading in the wrong direction.