Graduation Rate Increases, But NC Schools Still Struggle With Poverty

The state released a slew of markers Wednesday about how North Carolina Public Schools are faring—And there's some good news. For the tenth consecutive year, the state's high school graduation rate is up and is now just over at 85 percent.

Both Guilford and Forsyth County Schools also saw an increase in their graduation numbers.

“We've worked really hard as a district to increase these rates. Volunteers, partnerships with local organizations and businesses have also helped us raise the number,” says Theo Helm, chief of staff for Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools. “Our goal is to have a 90 percent graduation rate by 2018. We are on pace and that's very exciting.”

Guilford County Schools says it continues to focus on closing graduation gaps by race/ethnicity and gender.

Currently, for example, only 4.7 percentage points now separate the graduation rates of white and African American students. Graduation rates for Asian and Hispanic/Latino students also continue to climb, increasing from 68.8 percent in 2008 to 84.6 percent in 2015.

Another bright spot is more than 70 percent of public schools in North Carolina received grades of C or higher.  That's a slight increase over last year.

But the data shows more work is needed to improve reading proficiency levels for elementary and middle school students in order to be ready for college or skilled jobs.

Tammy Howard is the Director of Accountability Services with the Department of Instruction. She says the report also points to another troubling issue.

“You can see that there is a difference between schools that have poverty and schools that don't have poverty and the distribution of the grades with respect to whether they have A's, B's, C's or F's."

Howard says more resources are needed for schools that serve economically disadvantaged students.

The N.C. Department of Public Instruction began assigning each school a letter grade last year. Critics say the grades for elementary and middle schools don't paint a full picture because they are based primarily on standardized test scores, and not a student's academic growth from the year before.

Across the state (grades 3-8), 56.3 percent and 52.2 percent were proficient in reading and math in 2014-15, while 68.8 percent were proficient in science.

For a link to more information on your school's performance grade, click here.

*Follow Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news.