State school report cards confirm low test scores

By FULLER ROYAL
Staff Writer

The North Carolina State Board of Education released its annual Education First North Carolina Report Cards last week – four months late.

This is the fifth year for the report cards, started in 2002 by Gov. Mike Easley.

Easley initiated the program as a way to offer parents a snapshot of how their children’s schools were doing and how those schools compared with other schools within the district and across the state.

There were no surprises ­ – most of the information has already been reported.

For the most part, reading scores were fairly close to where they have been in the past with some schools seeing slight improvements and others dropping a bit.

The math scores are what did the 24 city and county schools in this year.

Citing skewed math score results that weren’t in line with the rest of the nation’s schools, the Department of Public Instruction made radical adjustments in last year’s math scores. The adjustment sent test scores plummeting. Some schools failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the first time.

Only two local schools, Evergreen and Chadbourn elementary – made AYP. More schools would have made it were it not for the math.

DPI officials have hinted that schools can expect a similar correction within the next 18 months on reading scores.

Eleven schools in the county are considered priority schools, meaning that they are at the top of DPI’s concern list.

West Columbus High School was the lowest performing high school, nearly 13 points below Whiteville High School, the highest performing school.

Fair Bluff had the highest teacher turnover rate last year – 56 percent – followed by Acme-Delco Middle with 39 percent, Nakina Alternative with 36 percent and WCHS with 28 percent.

Only six schools made expected or high growth – Acme-Delco Elementary, Boys and Girls Home, Chadbourn Elementary, South Columbus High School, Central Middle School and North Whiteville Academy.

Only SCHS had high growth.

To read more about each school, visit online, www.ncreportcards.org.