The much-anticipated accountability results for North Carolina’s Public Schools were released by the state board of education following its meeting on September 6th. State test results from the 2022-23 school year show that Richmond County Schools’ students continued to recover learning lost to the COVID pandemic, with gains across grades, subjects, and student subgroups. Richmond County Schools also reports 10 out of 14 schools meeting or exceeding expected growth.
Because of disruptions in teaching and learning caused by the pandemic, the accountability report for the 2022-23 school year is the second since 2018-19 to feature all elements of the state’s accountability framework, including the calculation of growth designations and A-F School Performance Grades.
While school closures and remote learning resulted in unprecedented declines in end-of-grade and end-of-course test scores for the 2020-21 school year, results for the 2022-23 year show strong gains, particularly in math. Reading scores also improved across grades. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt said last year’s accountability results show that schools remain on track to recover from the significant setbacks caused by COVID-19.
“It’s hard to overstate the impact of the pandemic,” Truitt said, “but teachers across North Carolina are working harder than ever to help students recover, and more importantly, advance in their learning. We owe them our gratitude for meeting this challenge to improve outcomes for students.
“We’ve now seen two consecutive years of gains that were greater than any of the several years preceding the pandemic losses, when year-to-year changes in average scores were generally flat, or in some cases, declining. Students and schools still have a way to go to catch up, but we have good reason to think that progress will continue,” Truitt said. “As more early-grades teachers adopt literacy instruction grounded in the science of reading, students will be stronger readers as they progress through elementary school and into middle school. We’re going to see continued improvement in those test scores and others.”
RCS Scores overall increased from 2021-22 levels with the strongest gains seen in math grades 3-8 and High School Math 1 showing RCS students scoring 12.5% higher than the state average.
The state’s 4-year cohort graduation rate, also a factor in determining high school performance grades, was unchanged from 2021-22, and was also largely unchanged from the 86.5% rate in 2018-19. RCS cohort graduation rate trails the state by 7 points. RCS has a renewed focus during the 23-24 school year to improve our graduation rate by implementing research based strategies proven to be effective.
RCS Superintendent Dr. Joe Ferrell agrees with the State Superintendent that it’s hard to overstate the impact of the pandemic. He adds, “Richmond County Schools continues to make strides in helping students overcome challenges. In many of our tested areas, we are making great gains towards meeting pre-pandemic achievement and growth scores. We are looking forward to a great school year!”