Education leaders discuss 2024-25 accountability, testing report

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina schools are seeing a three-year high for most standardized tests.

That’s just one of the highlights the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction shared Wednesday when it released its accountability data.

North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Maurice “Mo” Green and other school officials shared the findings expressing how schools in the state are doing better, but they also said there is more work to do, saying state schools can be the “best in the nation.”

On Wednesday local education leaders spoke to the hard work to promote excellence within each district.

The release of the 2024-25 Accountability and Testing Report for North Carolina schools is on the table.

According to the report, collectively students scored higher in 12 of 15 math and reading assessments.

Chief Academic Officer Stacey Wilson-Norman said only third grade reading, English II and N.C. math results fell when compared with the past school year.

“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,” Wilson-Norman said.

Wilson-Norman said they are also working hard to build a math framework for pre-K through 12th grade.

“To really begin to think about how high-quality math looks in every single classroom across our state,” Wilson-Norman said.

The graduation rate improved from the previous year with leaders saying the four-year rate went up to 87.7% That’s up 0.7% and is the highest it’s been in 10 years, and school performance grades continue to show an increase of schools earning an A, B or C.

School officials said some schools are still struggling, earning a D or F grade, but the number of schools falling behind is decreasing.

Green said these results stemmed from strategic planning.

“One was implementing Marzano high relative reliability model. They developed a unified instructional framework based on research and data. They added math and literacy facilitators. They built a safe and supportive and collaborative cultures,” Green said.

Senior Director of the Office of Accountability and Testing Tammy Howard said the state emphasizes reading comprehension for all students and said it goes beyond the skill of reading

“They ask students to do things like make inferences from text, to draw conclusions, to determine a main idea, and that is an extension of that,” Howard said.

According to Howard, nearly 50 fewer schools were marked low-performing in the 2024-25 school year compared with the previous year.

Green said these scores are a baseline for what’s to come.