More students in the Wake County Public School System are passing their standardized tests, according to new data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. It’s a sign Wake students continue to recover from learning loss stoked by the COVID-19 pandemic despite the loss of federal funds aimed at helping students catch up.
Math scores were particularly strong; a higher share of students are testing on grade level in math than in 2019, just before schools closed to in-person learning for the pandemic.
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Schools in the district have recovered their test scores at faster rates than most of the rest of the state. Statewide test proficiency rates are still behind pre-pandemic levels across all subjects except for fourth-grade reading and fourth-grade math, the new data shows. In Wake, reading proficiency rates still lag behind pre-pandemic levels on most tests.
Wake students began surpassing pre-pandemic proficiency rates two years ago and passed pre-pandemic levels on half of the state’s tests last year. The same is true for 2025: Proficiency rates have surpassed pre-pandemic levels on nine of the state’s 18 tests, particularly in math.
Some of the biggest gains were at Millbrook Magnet High School in Raleigh. Last year, the school’s math teachers switched up their teaching a bit. They made sure students were fluent in how to use the state-approved graphic calculator. They prompted students to work in groups and come up with answers to math problems on their own. Then, they’d come back together as a class and go over how to solve them.
“We're really excited about what we were able to accomplish with our students last year, what the students were able to accomplish,” said Brian Saunders, principal of Millbrook Magnet High School in Raleigh
Before, Millbrook’s teachers leaned more toward having the students memorize, which didn’t work for many students. Doing something new was critical, said Rachel Skipper, who teaches Math 3 and precalculus at Millbrook.
“We did not do well with our proficiency scores at all,” Skipper said. “And so we approached it differently last school year.”
This spring, 71% of Math 3 students at Millbrook High were proficient on the state test, up from 46.7% the year before. That’s compared to 66.4% statewide.
Jamar Smith, a Millbrook junior, was one of the beneficiaries.
His mom, Nicole Smith, said Jamar had always been good at math, but his scores took a hit during remote learning and were slow to climb back up.
His scores skyrocketed this spring, going up about 30 points over where a state algorithm had predicted he’d do based on previous test performance.
Jamar said he was shocked. “I was really happy,” he said.
Skipper always provided thorough explanations to his questions, more than other teachers he’d had in the past, he said.
That’s another critical piece of the school’s success, said Saunders, the Millbrook principal.
“The teacher is the variable in whether students succeed or not,” Saunders said.
Teachers such as Skipper connect with students and genuinely want to know who they are and what they like.
“It’s always about authentic relationships,” he said.
Doing better in math means Jamar feels like he can spend more time on his other school subjects, helping him do better in those classes. And he feels more prepared for his math classes this year.
“I feel more confident,” he said. “I feel like it will be a lot easier.
Wake’s test results
For a look at how your school did, go here. Here's a look at some of the Wake County results:
- In third- through eighth-grade reading, proficiency rose from 61.6% in spring 2024 to 61.9% this spring. That’s down from 65.1% six years ago. But fourth- and fifth-grade reading had full rebounds above pre-pandemic levels.
- In third- through eighth-grade math, proficiency rose from 64.9% in spring 2024 to 66.1% this spring. That’s more than it was six years ago, when it was 63.2%. All but seventh and eighth grades saw full rebounds from five years ago.
- Fifth-grade science had 69% passing, and eighth-grade science had 69.1% passing
- In biology, the proficiency rate was 60.9%
- In English II, proficiency was down slightly from last year — dropping to 70.3% this spring, from 71.1% in 2024. That’s up from 68.6% six years ago.
- In Math 3, for high schoolers, proficiency was 75.8%, up from 68.4% in 2024. The test was not given six years ago.
Third- through eighth-grade students take math and reading tests. Fifth grade and eighth grade take science tests.
At the high school level, some students take Math 1, Math 3, English II and Biology.
Science tests changed last year, after the state updated its standards. North Carolina Department of Public Instruction officials say the new science standards are more rigorous and contain more expectations for student learning. That means the new science test results can’t be compared to the old results on an apples-to-apples basis.
Helene and Covid funds
Many of the state’s school districts were exempt from being a part of the school accountability program for the fall of 2024 state tests because they missed too many days of school in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Many of those districts also eventually lost students when their families moved to other counties, but DPI officials believe that number of students to be too low to also exempt their new school districts from the accountability program.
Another change last year is that schools had fewer resources to work toward improving students’ proficiency. From 2021 until 2024, North Carolina’s public schools received more than $6 billion in federal Covid-19 relief dollars, more than $1 billion of which was set aside by the schools for learning recovery. That included tutoring, intervention teachers, learning coaches and other programs during the summer and after school.
The 2024-25 school year was the first post-pandemic without those dollars. Many of the employees were cut or reassigned back to more basic roles. So the work that powered increases in proficiency rates since 2022 isn't being done at the same scale anymore or sometimes even at all.