Guilford County Schools is nearly back to pre-pandemic student proficiency levels, according to newly released state data.
Last year, 54.5% of GCS students were considered “grade-level proficient” based on end-of-grade and end-of-course exams. That’s a difference of less than one percentage point from the school year before COVID-19 hit.
The district also saw a decrease in the number of schools considered “low-performing” and a record high graduation rate of 93%.
But Superintendent Whitney Oakley says with less funding than expected due to a recent property tax moratorium, the district has had to scale back on the resources and strategies that supported this progress.
“I think the technology devices are a good, tangible example," Oakley said at a press conference. "That we're now at a shared model in grades K-8 and only one-to-one in 9 through 12. I think we'll see the impact of that instructionally for sure.”
She said class sizes have also increased slightly, and caseloads for teachers of Exceptional Children and Multilingual Learners have gone up too. Those two subgroups tend to have some of the largest achievement gaps.