After its third full year in operation (2008-2009), IBEC again ranks as one of the top performing public high schools in North Carolina, earning the highest designation possible: Honor School of Excellence. Among high schools that met or exceeded the state's growth goals and satisfied the state's testing requirements, IBEC once again scored near the top in performance on End-of-Course (EOC) tests, with an overall proficiency rate of 92.4%.

Of the handful of schools that scored higher, none had as high a percentage of tests taken by African-American students as IBEC (23%). Only one school had a higher percentage of tests taken by African-American, Hispanic, and multi-racial students, and only one school had a higher percentage of tests taken by economically disadvantaged students.

IBEC 2008-2009 performance results on EOC tests show that 29% of its tests were taken by economically disadvantaged students and 28% were taken by African-American, Hispanic, or multi-racial students.

(This information was taken from the NC School Report Cards web site: http://www.ncreportcards.org/src/) 

One of the fundamental goals of early colleges in North Carolina is to make college more accessible to students from populations traditionally underrepresented on college campuses, and to prepare these students to be successful in college.

The success of Isaac Bear Early College High School with students from a wide range of backgrounds and academic ability is in no small part due to the outstanding faculty and staff at the school and the collaborative support of UNCW.