Wayne Early / Middle College High

Wayne Early / Middle College High is a small public high school in Goldsboro, NC, serving about 239 students in grades 9–12 on the campus of Wayne Community College as part of Wayne County Public Schools. The school uses an early-college model, allowing students to take college courses while completing their high school diploma. In 2025–2026, it ranked 21st out of 662 North Carolina high schools (97th percentile) with a 5-star rating, climbing steadily from 66th in 2021–2022, 68th in 2022–2023, and 82nd in 2023–2024.

Academically, the school is in a league of its own. In 2025–2026, Wayne Early achieved a perfect 100% proficiency rate on the English II and Math III end-of-course exams, with 96.9% proficiency in Biology and 84.9% in Math I. For context, district-wide proficiency was just 57.7% in English II and 72.8% in Math III, while state averages were 64.6% and 68.9%. Wayne Early outperforms every nearby high school in its district by 30 to 80 percentage points—far ahead of Charles B Aycock High, Eastern Wayne High, Goldsboro High, and Rosewood High. Even the district's other specialized magnets, Wayne School of Engineering and Wayne School of Technical Arts, trail Wayne Early in nearly every subject.

Perhaps most impressive, these elite results come at a school where 98.7% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Effectiveness ratings rank in the 94th–99th percentiles statewide for every measured student subgroup, including low-income, gifted, female, male, Hispanic, and African American students. The most recent reported graduation rate was 88.9% (2021–2022), well above the district's 77.6% at the time. Wayne Early achieves all of this with a higher student–teacher ratio (25.5) and lower per-pupil spending ($8,418) than most nearby high schools—strong evidence that its high performance is driven by the focused early-college model and quality instruction rather than extra resources.