CMS officials say ‘our recovery has begun’ as 50 schools land on state’s low-performing list
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools says it will deepen curriculum work in English and math, identify students in need and get them additional help as part of recovery efforts for this school year.
District officials announced the goals Thursday following the state’s release of 2021-22 school performance grades.
About half of CMS students failed state exams for the 2021-22 academic year. Yet, the district’s 50.2% proficiency rate only slightly trailed the statewide proficiency rate of 51.4%. CMS’ results were better than the 44.6% last year but below the 59.8% in the 2018-19 year.
The district also has 50 schools receiving a low-performing designation compared to the previous 42. Of the 50 schools this year, 22 are newly identified. Fourteen schools improved from the last time the N.C. Department of Public Instruction released letter grades in 2019 and are no longer considered low performing.
Chief Accountability Officer Frank Barnes said 54% of 177 schools earned a performance grade of A, B, or C from the 2021-2022 school year, and several schools had large percentage point increases in proficiency in reading and math. But 43.6% of all third-graders in CMS are not proficient in math, and 56.7% of all third-graders in CMS are not proficient in reading.
“What the data shows is that our recovery has begun, the bounce-back is taking place,” Barnes said, “and we want to keep up that momentum this school year.”
School board chair Elyse Dashew told The Charlotte Observer on Thursday eight of 115 school districts in the state were considered low performing in 2019.
“This year there are 29, a three-fold increase,” Dashew said. “CMS is not one of those districts.”
CMS also was not considered a low-performing district in 2019.
What does data show?
The new results are the first released since the 2018-19 school year that include whether a school met growth expectations on state exams. It also marks the return of schools getting an A through F letter grade based largely on their test results.
State education officials cautioned the public about comparing new scores to past years because some students were still in virtual learning while others missed time due to COVID-19.
Many North Carolina students will require months of additional learning time, possibly over several years, because of disruptions forced by the pandemic, according to a DPI news release. In 2018-19 in CMS, 71.7% of schools met or exceeded their growth expectations. With the exception of reading, CMS outperformed the state average on all end-of-grade and end-of-course tests.
“The scores represent the results of the decisions and priorities of this district, and its Board, over the last couple of years,” said CMS board member Sean Strain. “I look forward to a leadership focus on our students, our mission, vision and goals, and re-establishing a culture of high expectations, transparency and accountability.”
The only way to return to a high-performing school district is with leadership that prioritizes academic and operational excellence, Strain said.
“CMS must lead this transformation, but we’ll need every family, community partner and house of faith to go all in to turn this around for the futures of our youth and community,” he said.
Neighboring districts post higher proficiency rates
About 30% of the roughly 260 public schools in districts just outside Charlotte received a D or F for their annual performance grades, state data show. The districts include: Cabarrus County Schools, Gaston County Schools, Iredell-Statesville Schools, Kannapolis City Schools, Lincoln County Schools, Mooresville City Schools and Stanly County Schools.
Union County Public Schools and Cabarrus County Schools outperformed other Mecklenburg-adjacent districts — 67.7% of students in Union County passed state exams, and 60.2% of students in Cabarrus passed state exams.
Union County’s 2022 four-year cohort graduation rate is 92.1% — the best among the state’s 12 largest school districts. Out of 50 schools, 74% earned A, B or C grades, and 60% of schools either met or exceeded growth.
“While there is much to celebrate, there are also areas where we need to improve,” UCPS Superintendent Andrew Houlihan said in a news release on the district’s website. “The data shows that our students need more time in school in order to fully return to pre-pandemic levels of academic achievement. Given the strategies we have in place to provide high quality teaching, learning and wrap around services, we are highly confident that this can be attained during the 2022-23 school year.”
Cabarrus County had six schools that earned A grades out of 40 schools that received grades and seven schools that earned F grades.
Challenges ahead
Gaston County Schools Superintendent W. Jeffrey Booker said Thursday students in his district are gaining ground on learning loss that happened because of the COVID-19 pandemic. About 48% of students in the district passed state exams, 4.3 points higher than last year’s rate of 44.1%.
“It is encouraging to see our schools making gains in student achievement and academic growth,” Booker said in a news release posted to the district’s website. “We know that it will be a gradual process to recover from the pandemic, and it will take much energy and effort, but we are committed to doing all that we can to ensure that our students learn, grow, and thrive.”
In Gaston County 36 of 51 schools met or exceeded overall academic growth expectations. Half of its schools earned an A, B, or C grade.
In Stanly County Schools, 47.4% of students passed state exams last year, with 10 schools categorized as low-performing. Two of its schools — Stanly Early College High and Stanly STEM Early College — received “A” grades.
Kannapolis City Schools, which encompasses parts of Rowan and Cabarrus counties, has 35.5% of students passing exams. Six of its eight schools are low-performing.
More than 55% of students in Iredell-Statesville Schools (55.8%), Mooresville City Schools (58.1%) and Lincoln County Schools (57.9%) passed state exams. The three districts have a total of 16 low-performing schools out of 70 schools.
Michael Maher, deputy state superintendent in the Division of Standards, Accountability, and Research, said in a news release Thursday the agency’s impact analysis of lost instruction time due to COVID-19 earlier this year clearly showed the challenge ahead for schools across the state.
“Schools and educators are responding to that formidable challenge with a deliberate focus on supporting and accelerating learning for students,” Maher said. “Teachers, administrators and other educators deserve our appreciation for helping students recover a lot of ground lost to the pandemic.”
Search the data below to see how each school performed.
This story was originally published September 2, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
