Originally Published: Feb. 3, 2026

East Jackson High School has been named a Gold Level AP (Advanced Placement) Honor School, an accomplishment achieved by just 15 percent of high schools from throughout the nation. This marks the first-time a school within Jackson County has earned the Gold Level honor. 

To qualify, a school must meet or exceed criteria for a given recognition level for three metrics that include college culture, college credit and college optimization. College culture includes the percentage of students in the graduating class who have taken an AP exam at any point in high school, while college credit accounts the percentage of students who scored a three or higher on any AP exam while in high school. College optimization is the percentage of students in a graduating class who took five or more AP exams in high school, where at least one exam was taken in 9th or 10th grade. 

To achieve the gold status, schools must have at least 65 percent of students in the college culture category, 35 in college credit and 10 percent in college optimization. East Jackson High School had 65 percent in college culture, 40 percent in college credit and 15 percent in college optimization.