Correction (July 22, 2026): An earlier version treated Mooresville's reported 95.0% as an exact rate, though North Carolina masks rates above 95% at that displayed ceiling. It also included causal, socioeconomic, state-goal, and credit-requirement claims not established by the graduation file. The article now describes the reported bucket precisely and limits numeric and trend claims to executed package output.

Mooresville Graded School District^↗ET occupies a category of one. Its displayed rate is 95.0% in 2024, making it the only district in North Carolina in the reported at-or-above-95% bucket. The package marks that value as masked, so it is a ceiling display rather than the district's exact underlying rate. The next-highest district, Dare County, sits half a point back at 94.5%.

The number is all the more striking given where Mooresville started. In 2006, the district reported 64.0%, below the state average. The displayed rate increased 31.0 percentage points over 18 years.

A multi-year pattern

Mooresville has been at or above 90% for nine consecutive years, since 2016. It has been at or above 93% for six straight years, since 2019.

The 2024 cohort contained 534 students. Applying the displayed 95% ceiling produces about 27 non-graduates, but because the rate is masked, that is an upper-bound estimate rather than an exact count.

How Mooresville compares

Among North Carolina's top-performing districts, the cluster below Mooresville is tight. Dare County sits at 94.5%, Chapel Hill-Carrboro at 93.9%, Union County at 93.3%. All are strong performers. None has reached the 95% mark.

Across the package's 19 annual observations, Mooresville moved from below the state average to the only district in the latest reported 95% bucket. The graduation file establishes that trajectory; it does not establish which local conditions or programs caused it.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.