NC superintendent talks state test scores, reading levels and student proficiency

Very good

Uh good afternoon

Uh today the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has

released the accountability and testing results for North Carolina's public

schools for the 2425 school year

Uh joining me this afternoon are the following individuals

Uh we have Doctor Stacey Wilson Norman our chief academic

officer for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction

We have Doctor Tammy Howard who is a senior director

in the Office of Accountability and Testing for NCDPI

We have Doctor Thomas McGiti uh principal of Nash Early

College High School and we have a student Frederick Lindsay

uh who's a student at Nash Early College High School

Uh so what we'll do this afternoon are the following

Uh we'll start with Doctor Howard who will provide a

brief overview of the accountability results uh highlighting areas of

progress in areas where there is room for improvement

I'll share just a few examples of schools and school

districts that are making uh progress and then we'll turn

it over to the principal and student from Nash Early

College High School and ask that they share more about

their particular results which I think you will find are

quite amazing and what led to those results

Then we'll turn it over to uh Doctor Wilson Norman

who will share some thoughts about the overall state results

and plans for addressing uh areas of improvement through the

implementation of the recently announced uh strategic plan for North

Carolina's public schools

I will then make some concluding remarks and then open

it up for questions

And so uh first turn it over to Doctor Howard

Thank you Superintendent Green

So we're very excited of course today to recognize the

highest 4-year cohort graduation rate for North Carolina at 87.7%.

This is a consistent increase for the past three years

but most notable the highest ever

We're also excited that the percentage of students who are

proficient in reading and mathematics test if we add all

those tests together there are 15 across end of grade

and end of course excluding science because it was a

new assessment this year

Of those 1512 showed that the highest performance in 2025

as compared to the previous two years

Related to that if we take all of the test

scores and put them together into one composite score the

results for all racial and ethnic groups were the highest

again in 2025 as compared to the previous two years

And lastly all end of grade tests in mathematics grades

3 through 8 show an increase in 2025 compared to

the previous two years

So all of this shows consistent improvement in several areas

that are indicative of the work and the effort that

has been demonstrated across the state by our students by

our teachers by our principals and our educational leaders but

we always also have opportunities to

Continue this work and to improve our outcomes

One area that we're highlighting of course is grade 3

reading

There's been much effort in recent years around the science

of reading and we're all very anxious to see the

outcome from that work

So we'd like to know that cohorts one and two

with the way they're progressing through the system their year

of looking at those results is actually the current school

year 2025 2026

So we're

Anticipating next year this time to have results related to

that work and that effort we also always want to

emphasize the importance of reading comprehension that relates back to

our K3 learners who are um learning how to read

It goes beyond the skill of reading

It goes also to reading comprehension

Our end of grade test if it needs to be

stressed are that and they asked students to do things

like make

Inferences from text to draw conclusions to determine the main

idea and that is an extension of that learning how

to read the words to learning how to process the

meaning from the text and that really is a priority

across all grade levels K-12 um in emphasizing preparedness to

go beyond high school and be successful

We also have the opportunity to continue our work with

reading and mathematics across various subgroups of students

We we go to that level to look at that

although we also recognize very um seriously that we're focusing

on all students and all schools across the state of

North Carolina and identifying at the local level supporting them

in the areas that they can improve to increase achievement

of reading and math

And then lastly with the new science assessments that is

a baseline for this year

First year these assessments were administered um they were based

on content standards that were adopted by the state board

of Education in July 2023

Those content standards include what we refer to as science

and engineering practices

And so those content standards are a little bit different

than the previous content standards and it's an opportunity to

continue to provide support to instruction to make sure that

as we move from the baseline year that we continue

to see improvement and achievement in science

So thank you Superintendent Green

Thank you

Uh now what I'll do is just share a few

uh schools and school districts who uh made some significant

progress over the course of this last year

I'm gonna start with Cleveland County schools

Um so for the first time in 4 years none

of its uh 4 middle schools were designated as low

performing

Uh this is pretty significant given the hard work that

has to go into moving uh schools off of a

low performing list

Three of the 4 schools met or exceeded growth

There are some key strategies

Uh one was implementing Marzano's high reliability model

Um they developed a unified instructional framework based on research

and data

Uh they added math and literacy facilitators

They built safe and supportive and collaborative cultures uh within

those schools uh they shifted the emphasis from just not

only teaching but to teaching and learning with data driven

decisions

The reason that I also want to lift up this

particular uh situation is because of the Marzano model

Um the Marzano model is actually being expanded to the

Golden Leaf uh schools initiative

Uh you've heard about that before

This is the investment by the Golden Leaf Foundation

Of $25 million over the course of the next 5

years to help transform 15 rural middle schools with a

focus on mathematics

The second one that I'll lift up is Lakeside Charter

Academy in Cornelius

Uh on the legislative accountability model this school went from

a grade of F to a C

And it went from not meeting growth to exceeding growth

over the course of this past year

This means that this school is no longer low performing

um uh this year

And in the report that was provided by uh Doctor

Howard

Um uh to the State Board of Education uh this

morning one of the things that was highlighted was the

fact that there was dramatic uh improvement with regards to

the decrease in the number of low performing schools uh

this year

I believe that number was about 60 less uh this

year

And then the third one that I want to lift

up uh this morning or this afternoon is the Nash

Early College High School

Uh this school has an overall A rating on that

accountability uh model and has exceeded growth for the 6th

consecutive year

Outstanding proficiency rates

Let me just give you a sense of what those

look like

Um 83% in biology

89% in math one

96% in English too

And 98% in math 3

Incredible incredible numbers

And so I do want to turn it over to

the principal and the student to share more about uh

those results and how you uh were able to achieve

Thank you Superintendent Green

And again thank you for your recent visit to Nash

Early College High School

I am Doctor Thomas McGahey the proud principal of Nash

Early College High School

Not only do I currently serve as the principal of

that high school but my son graduated from the school

back

In 2009

So as a parent and as an administrator I can

attest to the great things that are occurring within our

school

Uh I would be remiss if I didn't mention accompany

me accompany me today

I have my math 3 teacher Mrs

Diane Rank

I have Mrs

Tabitha Edwards for English too

And I have Ms

Amy Kirkwood for uh biology

I also have my school counselor Mrs

India Sweet

And the minute I'm gonna talk about the importance of

not just looking at education from the academic perspective but

also including those social and emotional skills that are needed

to be successful

Um and Nurse Nash Early College High School one of

the things we've done is we have an intentional focus

as a district on high expectations for all scholars

So within our district we are using the explicit instruction

protocols um espoused by Doctor Anita Archer

And basically what that means in every classroom every day

every scholar is participating

They're thinking they're writing they're speaking

And that speaks to the success that we've been able

to sustain sustain over the past 6 years

Um I wanna start with I've always believed that you

have to begin with culture

You have to build a culture in an organization in

order to achieve the results that you want

So for me our school family and I call them

my family we built a culture of collaboration

That is there are no silos within our building

Learning is a team effort

It's not individual

So we start with things like our professional learning communities

our PLCs

We look at student data

We don't just look at the proficiency mark but we

then dig deeper to find out if they're not achieving

the results that we want what can we do And

a collaborative effort to ensure that they achieve the success

that they deserve

And in a minute I'm sure Frederick is gonna talk

about his experiences there but that means a lot within

the building so not operating in a silo and that

means not just teachers in the building but also as

an early college I I'm partnered with Nash Community College

under the leadership of Doctor Lou Honeycutt who has opened

so many doors for us as an organization

Well we have have vertical alignment PLCs with college professors

so that we ensure that we're doing the things we

need to do to meet your goal one that every

student is going to be successful in their next phase

of life

So that that not only um involves conversations about instruction

but also providing resources

So we have access to the biology labs to conduct

experiments to expand um the knowledge

Base of our scholars uh in partnering with Nash Community

College

Also we share best practices

Uh just yesterday I have a new teacher uh new

to our country teaching for the first time in our

building and we went on a learning walk

So we went to observe a veteran teacher who employed

the very practices that we're talking about with explicit instruction

so that he could see that in action

Um those are the kinds of um actions I think

that definitely contribute to our success

Also with professional development

We all understand that when it comes to students we

want to have individualized uh uh instruction for them

But with my teachers I want individualized professional development

So I asked them what they need

To better equip them for their classroom instruction and then

I allocate within my budget professional development dollars so that

they can attend PD sessions and then come back and

build capacity in our school

They share those best practices with their colleagues

So again no silos

We're building capacity and we're targeting professional development to meet

the needs of our teachers as well

Uh I've talked about the uh vertical alignment with uh

Nash Community College

A perfect example of that and Frederick is gonna talk

about is a recent uh opportunity that our scholars had

to go to Iceland

Based on a club that's sponsored by Nash Community College

So 6 of my scholars got a chance to go

to Iceland

And you talk about expanding their horizons introducing them to

experiences that they otherwise would never have had

It's something that you can't put a price on

But again it ties back to building relationships and using

collaboration

And oftentimes when we talk about education we think about

the building we think about the teachers the principal but

I don't want to forget the families

Our families are an integral part of the success of

our scholars

And a recent example of that is we had a

group of scholars who aspire to be attorneys and I'm

sure superintendent

Green likes that

So we created a club uh to participate in the

North Carolina mock trial program

This parent came in and provided assistance to our staff

so that they could prepare our scholars to participate in

that program and they had two opportunities to compete

Uh in a mock trial situation and just the confidence

they gained from that experience

Again it's not something you can put a price on

but it goes back to collaboration and in that instance

we're talking about working with families

And then the other thing I want to talk about

in my environment is this

I've tried to create an environment where I encourage staff

and scholars to take risks

Don't be afraid of failure

Because if you didn't achieve what you wanted to then

that means you reflect on the experience and you build

upon it to improve yourself

So I encourage risk taking all the time whether it's

with instruction whether it's with a scholar who is so

much timid about going to Mrs

Rank's math 3 class or Mrs

Edwards uh English 2 or uh Kirkwood's biology

Push yourself

You can do this

And we have a support network there that's focused on

your success

And then the other thing uh I want to touch

upon is understanding the importance of social emotional well-being of

our scholars

Our school has implemented the peer group connections program

That is a program where we have upperclassmen who mentor

incoming freshmen

To help bridge that transition from middle school to high

school

I have 34 teachers who've gone through extensive training for

PGC and they in turn allow scholars to compete and

apply to be PGC uh facilitators

So again as I shared with Superintendent Green on his

visit sometimes we as adults can say something to a

young person and it doesn't resonate but when they hear

from a peer It has a whole different meaning

So PGC having that opportunity for scholars to reach out

to a peer for support folks who've been successful in

our school and then sharing their experiences and then providing

that encouragement is another um component uh that has led

to our success as an early college high school

And my final point I want to talk about is

we uh we know not to become complacent

Yes we are pleased with where we are and what

we've achieved but this is a new year

We've got new scholars who are gonna be testing

So we continue to employ those uh practices and procedures

that we have that have shown to be successful in

our school

And if we need to make tweaks we're not afraid

to make adjustments because again the goal of our institution

is success high achievement for all scholars

Thank you sir and I will turn it over to

your students

All right

Hello my name is Frederick Lindsay

I'm a 13th grader at Nash Early College High School

and my my school is truly so incredibly special

There's 3 things that I would like to touch upon

And first is the dual enrollment process

My dual enrollment process has transformed my life

I came in in 9th grade and I was I

think I was on the track to Entertainment and media

and through internships through classes like drama 111 and internships

with the studio on campus I realized that wasn't for

me

And through numerous trials and errors with my counselor Ms

Sweet we realized that healthcare is where I found my

passion for helping people at

And through internships like the one with the hospital with

hospice and through classes like anatomy and physiology I realized

I was really passionate about healthcare and biology and just

the human body in general

And another thing I would like to touch upon is

the access to opportunities

In my school since we're linked with Nash Community College

we have a wide variety of opportunities there

like interning with the Studio 67 like I mentioned that's

Nash's campus and through there I had a radio show

which I won't mention but it was very cool

It was a very nice opportunity where I got to

just voice my opinion once a week and it was

lifechanging truly

And I would say the um opportunity like going to

Iceland with my principal that was truly life-changing

I got to and as a low-income student I got

to experience a new country for the first time for

$500 to stay there for 5 days

That's that's an opportunity that you wanna get in many

places and The last point I would like to touch

upon is just the close-knit community that our school has

cultivated

All the teachers right here they could tell you all

of our students' names from 9th to 13th grade I'm

sorry

And That's just something you want to get at another

school and that's just something that's truly been so special

to me through my 5 long but very special years

there

And I just always feel supported no matter what I

do no matter what career pathway I'm on I just

always feel like I have someone in my corner there

to back me up to support me to push me

even when I don't feel like Even when I don't

feel like continuing and that's just something that

I will forever be grateful for and

Nash Community College and Nash Early College is just a

truly special community and it's One that needs recognition I

would say

Excellent

Thank you so much for uh your comments

Um and I'll turn it now to uh Doctor Wilson

Norman um who will share a little bit about the

overall results and then also plans for uh areas of

improvement

We're very excited about the results that were shared today

that we saw many bright spots that Doctor Howard shared

We want to be best in the nation and so

in order to do that we have a couple of

areas that we want to target

One is 3rd grade reading in which we will continue

to build on the work that we're doing with the

science of reading

It is a strong foundation but with the adoption of

our new standards that you'll hear more about in the

coming months for ELA for English language arts we want

to continue to strengthen that implementation and the same with

English too

We're also working very closely to build a math framework

pre-K through grade 12 to really begin to think about

how does high-quality math look in every single classroom across

our state

And so as we're working on our math standards that

will be a focus

Our strategic plan undergirds a lot of our work that

you will see in the future that we will begin

to build on and implement statewide a teaching and learning

framework that will begin to establish some consistent practices from

subject area to subject area

And thinking about what does it look like with our

high-quality instructional materials

Those are just a few highlights that we will continue

to focus on and build upon in our strategic plan

We also heard a lot about our subgroup performance and

we feel like That is a way for us to

leverage and accelerate improvement for our state

As we think about how groups of students are performing

what are ways that we can really target those groups

provide additional support build upon the promising practices that are

taking place across our state and really deepen that implementation

for acceleration Those are just a few strategies to help

us move forward in the superintendent's vision and the state

board's vision of North Carolina being best in the nation

Thank you thank you so much for that

And so before I open it up to questions let

me just share a couple of uh closing uh comments

Certainly there is room for continued improvement

Uh however I must say that I am pleased that

North Carolina has achieved a 3-year high in most standardized

end of grade and end of course assessments uh with

improvements in 12 or 15 math and reading tests

I am particularly pleased that our four year cohort graduation

rate has risen to 18.7%. Um I think context is

probably important here uh as Doctor Howard has already mentioned

this is the highest uh four year cohort graduation rate

in the history of North Carolina

The highest I think it's also important to uh put

it in further context by thinking about not only graduation

rate but then what are our students doing as they

as they graduate

And so there will be more data that will come

out later this year but just as a bit of

context let's look back to

To last year um 23 24 school year where the

graduation rate was 87% so we've seen an increase but

if you think about the 23 24 uh graduates um

they participated and performed in college level advanced placement courses

at record setting levels reaching the highest participation in finals

schools in the last 10 years

North Carolina's career and technical education programs had a record

breaking year in 20324

Students earned more than 358,000 individual credentials the highest level

since in North Carolina Department of Public Instruction started tracking

this attainment 14 years ago

In the 2324 school year over 78,000 public high school

students were duly enrolled in at least one college course

through a career and College Promise which gives students the

opportunity to earn college credits while still in high school

and 36% of the 23 24 graduates had earned credits

through that program and again we'll later this year be

sharing more data as it relates to the 24 25

Um school year

Now Um these results from the 24 25 school year

certainly demonstrate resilience dedication and progress for our students and

educators across the state

Uh these results I believe represent more than just mere

numbers

They represent thousands of students who are better prepared for

their next phase in life

Um I'm so pleased to uh make this presentation uh

even as we know that our goal is not to

be where we are today

There's much work that has to be done for us

to get to a place where we are best in

nation

By 2030

And so with that I would open it up to

any questions that anyone will have

Yes ma'am

Seems like reading really is a focus area for you

all especially 3rd grade reading

Why has reading lagged compared to other subjects I'll turn

first to uh Doctor Stacey Wilson Norman

I think reading is more difficult and takes more time

Um our teachers have been trained in uh the letters

professional learning and we're just working to align some of

the elements but we feel as though the baseline or

the structure is there for support but we just need

to align some of the other supports to really accelerate

that progress

But reading takes a lot of time and a lot

of training and we've done the training and now we

want to align some of the other supports

Right

Uh and also just to remind us uh Doctor Howard

if you'll just also reiterate uh when a particular cohort

will be will have data for that cohort based on

some of the significant work that has been done across

the state

So yes that is correct

So with the science of reading we're anxious too

So when we get the data we're like oh where

are we with the science of reading implementation Where are

we gonna have that group of students that started and

came all the way through and cohort one and cohort

two will be for the 2025 2026 data

So hopefully this time next year we'll be having a

different conversation

Very good

Yes ma'am

And obviously changed schools all across the state

Were these was this raised in all of this data

expected as in

And Through there but see if it's still rebounding and

Great

Doctor Howard do you want to take a stab at

that one Um yes thank you

So um I think the important thing to notice is

we're looking back in this data report to 2023 and

for many of the areas that we looked at there

is consistent improvement from 2023 to 2025 so

I think in that seeing that consistency where where it

is and it is very evident for example in grades

3 through 8 mathematics then we're moving away um from

the same impact I would characterize it as we have

in the initial years coming in out of the pandemic

Very good

Uh so yes ma'am see your hand

Specifically being done in schools to bring these test scores

Yeah so uh you heard a number of different things

I think this morning

Yeah so um again you heard different things again this

afternoon uh you heard for example what is happening at

the local level at uh Nash Early College and all

of the strategies that that particular schools being has put

in place

Different schools will have different things that they are doing

different districts will have different things that they are doing

Uh as well and so um I'd rather not sort

of say there's 11 particular thing that's driving all of

the performance improvement but rather uh certainly a continued focus

on and then you know trying to have more focus

on teaching and learning

Uh more focus obviously on uh thinking about students is

more than just one day's worth of test scores but

what do they need to do to grow across the

course of the year I'll look to uh Doctor Stacy

Norman Wilson Norman to see if there's anything she'd like

to add to that

I think Superintendent Green really highlighted the main areas continue

to focus on instruction to continue to focus on student

wellness and really to think about how we can support

our educators will continue to be our focus

Yes ma'am

You guys were just mention Know like one answer but

That

and also Federal Yeah so uh first of all I

think it's really important that we appreciate that um our

schools are doing incredible work

Um always room for improvement

We certainly looked at our data you can look at

certain subgroups and say there's obviously absolute room for improvement

with regards to that data but I have to uh

emphasize how incredible work um that our schools are doing

because they are

Um certainly um I think that's an important sort of

context right Um that's why for example when I talked

about the graduation rates I didn't want to just simply

focus on those graduation rates alone because it's you know

one might make the argument well it's easy to just

put students through right Uh but are they learning things

along the way and that's why I think some of

that context becomes critically important uh as we think about

this going forward as well

Um with regards to all of the things that are

going on obviously our strategic plan is certainly trying to

address some of those uh issues as well

Uh this year for example um we are uh because

of uh working with the General Assembly and legislation that

they passed uh you know really limiting access to uh

mobile devices during the instructional day which I think will

allow for more instruction

Uh and more teaching and learning uh to transpire

We're certainly looking at things like artificial intelligence

Um North Carolina was one of the very first states

to put out guidance a few years ago um and

so we'll utilize that guidance we'll enhance it as we

think about how to incorporate AI into teaching and learning

going forward as well

That's part of our strategic plan uh looking forward as

well

Now there are a few things that are gonna be

really important for us to focus on

One Educators educators uh we must have high quality educators

working with our students um that's why given the results

that we've seen compared to the resources that are provided

to our educators I use the term revere

I revere our educators because they're doing incredible incredible work

Second um we do have to talk about resources right

Um

The amazing things that schools like the Nash Early College

are doing uh could only be uh further enhanced uh

if we get the kind of resources uh necessary uh

I believe to provide a high quality education for each

and every student

When you think about North Carolina and where we find

ourselves compared to the rest of the nation with regards

to resources there are reports that come out that place

us in the forty-eighth position uh across the states uh

in the country

Um and thousands of dollars less than the national average

and even compared to Virginia and South Carolina on a

per pupil basis

When you times that times 1.5 million students in North

Carolina you recognize that we We need more resources which

will allow us to recruit and retain and grow our

educators who can then in turn do amazing things with

our students

Next question

Yes sir

I got In the western part of the Do you

think the state If not on those So I'll turn

to uh Doctor Howard to see if she has any

thoughts on that and then I'll I'll I'll add to

it

Right well I I think first of all of course

that we're very understanding of the situation that our fellow

educators and students um and families and communities face in

the western part of the state um

I think that there was significant work locally I'm sure

to give them support and get them back in place

as soon as they can but of course you're back

in place but what does that really look like What

does that mean when you've been through the devastation of

a hurricane Um when we look at any data though

I would remind ourselves that there are multiple impacts on

that data and it would be really wonderful if we

could kind of tease out and say this was the

impact and this is what it would have been if

we had not had a hurricane or a tornado or

if a principal had not left the school or if

there had not been high teacher turnover or if there

had not been some other situation in a community that

affected the students and the families

But that's very very difficult to do and the other

thing I would remind us is that in some and

we don't know this this is not anything that I

know that anyone knows right But sometimes when we're faced

with difficult situations everyone kind of works a little harder

and so maybe there was you know some some benefit

from that as well but I think the important thing

always with data is to consider the context and that's

why on the reports we have done this for the

Past several events that we've had in North Carolina we

include the number of lost instructional days so when that

data is being accessed and it's been reviewed and considered

that that is taken into consideration because absolutely that is

a factor for those schools in the western part of

the state and there are probably other situations across the

state that we may not be aware of um that

had impact as as well but the important thing of

the data is it's a it's a point that we

can start and identify where to go forward

Very good

I see one last hand yes

Schools didn't have that federal pandemic relief funding last school

year

How did you all manage not having that to uh

help students improve and prevent uh further learning loss That's

a fabulous question

Um and uh I'll see whether Doctor Wilson Norman has

any thoughts about that and then I'll I'll share a

thought or two

I think schools had to make tough decisions

Districts had to make tough decisions but they prioritize teaching

and learning um as best they could in in in

the changes

So I think the federal dollars gave opportunities to try

things and like when the dollars were no longer available

districts had to make tough decisions to prioritize students and

instruction and I think based on the data they've made

some good choices

And then what I would add is uh certainly I

do believe given uh the um return on investment that

has occurred here in North Carolina I mentioned earlier sort

of where we are with regards to overall funding I

just start to think about what would happen if we

had continued to receive that level of funding either from

the federal government or from the state level or from

local uh levels as well right um

We need additional resources I think to continue to make

the progress uh that we know that can be made

um across our across our state

Again I want to thank you for allowing us this

opportunity to present a bit about our accountability and testing

results for the 2425 school year to be able to

highlight uh some of the progress being made across the

state

Uh including uh the highest ever graduation rate in the

history of North Carolina allowing us also then to highlight

some particular uh schools and in particular the early college

uh at Nash the Nash Early College uh high school

uh as well

Uh thanks be blessed