Nearly every school in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools averaged a year’s academic progress or more in the 2008-2009 school year, surpassing a district goal for 2010.
State test results released today showed that 89.6 percent of the district’s schools made high or expected growth, more than the goal of 80 percent CMS had set for 2010.
“We have met one of the biggest goals in our Strategic Plan 2010 on academic achievement,” CMS chief Peter Gorman, said at a media briefing. “We said we wanted 80 percent of our schools to make expected or high growth on the state ABCs by 2010, and we’ve cleared that bar a year ahead of schedule.”
The results were part of the state ABCs (Accountability, Basics and Local Control) system, which tracks the progress of North Carolina’s public schools. The ABCs measure the academic growth of students each year. It is also used to calculate whether schools made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Only 17 of the 162 schools measured in CMS showed growth that was less than expected. Eighty of the schools measured showed high growth, and 65 showed expected growth.
Among elementary schools, 50 made high growth and 39 made expected growth, with 10 falling below the standard. Twelve middle schools made high growth, with 17 making expected growth and three falling short. In high schools, 18 made high growth, nine made expected growth and four fell short of the standard.
However, the calculations also show that a gap remains with African-American and economically disadvantaged students, meaning that those subgroups on average are not learning at a rate equal to their white or more affluent peers.
The graduation rate declined slightly, from 66.6 percent in 2007-2008 to 66.1 percent in 2008-2009.
