Tarboro High

Tarboro High is a traditional public high school in Tarboro, North Carolina, serving 496 students in grades 9-12 as part of Edgecombe County Public Schools. Nearly all students (99.4%) qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the school has ranked in the bottom 10% of North Carolina high schools for several years, currently sitting at 619th out of 662 schools statewide.

Academic performance at Tarboro High is significantly behind state averages on every End-of-Course exam. Just 6.3% of students score proficient in Math I and 27.9% in English II, compared to state averages of 42.1% and 64.6%. The contrast with Edgecombe Early College High, located less than two miles away and serving a similarly high-poverty population, is striking: the early college posts 90% proficiency in Math I and 86.7% in Biology, while Tarboro manages just 6.3% and 22%. A similar gap exists with Nash Central High, which has nearly identical poverty rates but Math I proficiency of 62.6%.

There is some encouraging news. Tarboro's graduation rate has climbed steadily from 70.8% in 2022-23 to 85.3%, now close to the state average and ahead of nearby North Edgecombe High and North Pitt High. However, chronic absenteeism has worsened to 46% — nearly double the state rate, meaning roughly 1 in 2 students is missing significant school time. This attendance crisis is likely a major driver of the low academic outcomes. For parents, the key takeaway is that while Tarboro High has improved at getting students to graduation, the school has not yet figured out how to ensure students are mastering grade-level material along the way.