School report card grades are based on 80% proficiency, that’s how well students do on these tests, and 20% on how much a student grew in their learning by the end of the year. NCDPI is still looking at a way to reform this model; but it would take the state legislature officially to change it
New Hanover County Schools Superintendent Dr. Christopher Barnes likens it to, “Throwing all the kids in the pool, seeing how many of them swim, that's proficiency. Checking to see how many kids are swimming better than they were swimming the year before is growth. The way to get to proficiency is to exceed growth year after year.”
Barnes is concerned about the ten schools that didn’t meet growth rates — those are measured by a proprietary algorithm called EVAAS, created by the SAS software company. It’s also the way teachers are judged.
“Those are things where we have to analyze where those specific pressure points are and then build plans to address them,” he said.
Barnes added he’ll be presenting those plans at the October board meeting, but wanted to point out the district’s bright spots.
“Our students outperform the state in 11 out of three key areas; a couple of our areas stand out significantly, such as our ACT results, which are 15th in the state. In our 3-8, our math is also 15th in the state. If you look at the surrounding counties, we're first across all end-of-grade/course tests combined, and 75% of our schools met or exceeded their growth expectations,” he said.
But New Hanover County Schools did drop a percentage point in overall proficiency rates, from 61% to 60%, which is where Barnes wants to focus his efforts.
“So we need to look at that very seriously, because that is obviously not the goal for the district,” Barnes said.
The list of low-performing New Hanover County Schools also expanded from seven to ten. Those schools have a D grade with either a “meets expectations” or “did not meet expectations” growth score, or an “F” grade.
Barnes said he’s identified a variable that contributes to that — along with the slight decrease in the district’s overall proficiency rate.
"The loss of more than 300 educators and staff members from the district; We're still trying to ascertain how much of an effect that had on our students. And our educators are committed; they're hard working, and overall, it shows that the teaching and learning is still continuing to move in a positive direction overall. However, I think there's going to be some corollary between a loss of staff that large and initial proficiency for students,” he said.
Barnes said these staffing cuts aren’t a new phenomenon, since arriving in NHCS in 2021.
“We lost about maybe 78-100 [employees] as our enrollment was declining; we were tracking where those staff needed to be repurposed. [...] We are less staffed than we were pre-Covid, but we also have fewer students. I think the challenge is that students now have more complex and differing needs than they did a year ago. There's a significant difference in the needs of students from 10 years ago when I left the principalship,” he said.
This also means, according to Barnes, that there are more students per staff member.
When looking at proficiency rates in the district and at the state level, there are large disparities between differing student populations. For NHCS, White students had a proficiency score of 76%, Hispanic students were at 40%, and Black students were at 30%.
“I think that poverty is a part of the puzzle that needs to be addressed. However, I think that our job is to focus on every individual school and its needs. It's not about spreading kids around in different groupings to sort of get to proficiency. That's not really what this is about," he said. "I also want to make sure I'm focusing on, where's their need? How do we address that challenge?”
However, some educational researchers say that the way to higher proficiency rates is to have schools look demographically similar to one another.
Another weak point for the district was the science and biology exams, which had updated standards last year.
“But we're expecting those scores to sort of rebound as we, as we sort of learn the new set of standards,” Barnes added.
Math I, which is a course for either eighth or ninth graders, and the 3rd grade reading score, which educators place a lot of emphasis on because it correlates highly with how well students will perform in the future, also need work, according to Barnes.
And the fix, he said, is partly more support for the schools.
“One is support from The Endowment. Two, addressing things with our county commissioners, and three, adjusting the allotment formulas at the state level. So all those can explain how we got to where we are, but also it's so important to look at that comparison to other districts because other districts are in the same space that we are,” he said.
Allotment formulas are how many positions the state legislature pays for based on a certain number of students. Barnes is also referring to the tough budget seasons for districts like Wake County and Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools.
Additional reporting and NHCS report on the recent grade announcement:
- NHCS sees slight decline in performance metrics, low-performing list grows
- District Proficiency Rates
- School Performance Grades
- Graduation Rates
- WUNC's How to read a NC School Report Card for your school
- WHQR’s report on last year’s results
- Link to last article on NHCS Turnaround Task Force (links to prior reporting on NHCS lower performing schools at bottom)
