Sampson County Schools recently made history, earning the highest graduation numbers the school system has ever recorded. The district graduation rate among all of the high schools combined in 2025 was 86.8 percent; in 2024, the rate was 82.2 percent.
“We jumped 4.6 points in one year,” said an excited Superintendent Dr. Jamie King as he reflected on the county system’s growth. “If you look historically …if you go back to 2019, we were at 82.1, but nowhere were we above 82.3.”
That 82.3 percent was the previous highest graduation rate achieved, and that was in 2021.
“I think graduation rates are an important thing. For me, I tell people the only data chart I have on my wall is graduation rates, because to me, that tells what we’re doing as a whole organization,” the county superintendent attested.
One of King’s top priorities is trying to ensure that the county’s rates don’t fall behind the state’s rates which, in 2025 stood at 88 percent.
“I always try to look at our district compared to the state. You know, what’s that difference? As the state goes up, we should go up. If the state goes down, there’s an issue across the whole state, then what are we doing to lower that? So, I always look at that comparison to the state.
“I don’t know what the state’s numbers are going to be this year, but I think for the first ever, we have a good chance of being above the state average in graduation rates, and for a community like Sampson, that says a lot about public education, the quality of teaching and learning that’s happening, and the work of our board to make sure that students have options.”
King stressed that he believes the record rates are thanks to the Sampson community.
“Each high school has done remarkably well in the past three or four years, so it’s not just one school or one location. It’s the whole district working to make sure that kids and families understand the graduation requirements, have different opportunities if they fail a class, and that it’s not over; there are always other opportunities.
“We’ve had a big focus on graduation rates and working with schools to really build relationships with students. We know that (our) graduation rate is a cumulative effect, so it’s showing not just what’s happening in high school, but what’s happening in elementary and middle schools.”
King emphasized that relationships are the key to Sampson County Schools’ success.
“I think that we’ve really just focused on building better relationships with kids, improving instruction in classrooms so that kids are more engaged, having kids have more hands-on opportunities, and so I think all those things combined helped us to reach a higher graduation rate. … Graduation rates to me are all of us working together, because that kid had to have somebody who cared about them in third grade, someone who cared about them in seventh grade; to graduate, it’s not just one year. It’s a culmination of all the years.”
Looking ahead, the superintendent said he foresees Sampson County being able to build upon these record graduation numbers even more.
“We’re looking at data that (shows) we’re going to have a higher graduation rate this year for 2026 than we did for 2025, so another record year, hopefully. Again, I think that’s just the hard work of the staff and the hard work of students who show their grit — their level of rigor, and not wanting to give up.”