Buncombe STEM school earns state and national honors
Martin Nesbitt Discovery Academy became one of 356 U.S. Blue Ribbon schools after state STEM distinction, putting Buncombe's first STEM high school in the spotlight.
Martin L. Nesbitt, Jr. Discovery Academy has become a marker for what Buncombe County schools can do when STEM instruction is built around participation, partnerships and hands-on work. The Asheville school, the first Science, Technology, Engineering and Math high school in Western North Carolina, earned a 2024 National Blue Ribbon School honor after also being named a STEM School of Distinction by the North Carolina State Board of Education.
The state recognition came on Sept. 5, 2024, after a rigorous application and review process. Later that month, on Sept. 23, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education named Nesbitt Discovery Academy one of 356 schools nationwide to receive the Blue Ribbon award, a distinction Buncombe County Schools said extended a rare run of recognition for the district after Fairview Elementary School was honored in 2023. District leaders said Buncombe County now counts five National Blue Ribbon Schools.
For Buncombe County, the more important question is not the plaque but the model. Nesbitt opened on Aug. 20, 2014 and was officially dedicated on Sept. 21, 2014. Since then, the school has described its work as project-based learning supported by a community partnership model, with retention and graduation rates above 95 percent. Its profile includes 379 students, a 21-to-1 student-teacher ratio and 73 percent AP participation, numbers that suggest a school pushing students into rigorous coursework while keeping them enrolled through graduation.
The district has pointed to community STEM Day events and student mentoring as part of that success. Buncombe County Schools said Nesbitt students have mentored younger children on an outdoor classroom project at Johnston Elementary, linking the academy’s specialty directly to elementary-school learning. That matters for the county’s workforce pipeline because it connects classroom engineering and science work to earlier exposure, not just advanced coursework for a small group of older students.
The recognition also puts pressure on Buncombe County to decide whether this kind of STEM access stays concentrated at one standout school or spreads more broadly. District leaders have said Nesbitt’s success reflects collaboration among students, teachers, staff and families. The harder public question is whether other schools in Buncombe can replicate that mix of participation, rigor and community backing, or whether the county’s strongest STEM opportunities will remain concentrated in a single academy in the Erwin district.
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