More than a third of North Carolina's 2,537 public schools earned As and Bs for 2017-18 under the state's annual School Performance Grade accountability measurement, with nearly three quarters meeting or exceeding expectations for academic progress.
About 22 percent of the schools received a grade of D or F.
(Click here to find out how your school performed.)
Accountability results were released Wednesday to the State Board of Education along with the four-year Cohort Graduation Rate for the class of 2018. The four-year rate, tracking students who entered 9th grade in 2014, shows that 86.3 percent of the cohort graduated last school year.
Because of changes to the state's accountability measurements required under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, school grades, growth results and graduation rates for the 2017-18 school year are not comparable to past performance during the five years the state has assessed schools using A-F letter grades and 13 years reporting the Cohort Graduation Rate. Schools are now accountable for the progress of non-English speaking students in mastering English skills and are also subject to a number of other changes affecting School Performance Grades, growth calculations and the graduation rate.
State Superintendent Mark Johnson said that while last year was something of a reset year for measuring performance at the school level, student performance shows the state must continue to stress innovation and personalized learning to ensure continued progress.
“We know that students learn best when instruction is tailored to their needs,” Johnson said, “so we're adjusting our supports for educators at the state level to help make that happen. Teachers are working hard and our state must transform our system to complement their efforts.”
Johnson said also that he was encouraged by a decline in the number of low-performing schools and districts from the previous year.
“The fact that fewer schools and districts are underperforming is positive news in this year's accountability report,” Johnson said. “We thank teachers and school leaders for their hard work and hope that more effective support from DPI will continue to improve those numbers.”
Low-performing schools are identified annually as those that receive a School Performance Grade of D or F and do not exceed growth. Low-performing districts are districts where the majority of schools received a School Performance Grade and have been identified as low performing. For 2017-18, 476 schools were identified as low performing, down from 505 in 2016-17, and seven districts were low performing, down from 11 in 2016-17.
The number of recurring low-performing schools fell from 468 in 2016-17 to 435 in 2017-18.
The state says the information is designed to serve as a tool for parents and the community and hold school districts accountable.
Some school leaders say they're concerned that the letter grades unfairly label schools in low-income neighborhoods that are dealing with several challenges but showing improvement.
*Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news
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