Annual academic performance data released Wednesday by the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI) reveals that 16 Alamance-Burlington schools – or 43 percent of the 37 ABSS schools – have been identified by the state as continually low-performing in 2023-24.
The 16 ABSS schools designated as “continually low-performing” in 2023-24 had been previously identified as “low-performing” for at least two of the past three years, according to DPI (see accompanying chart for a breakdown).
The 16 ABSS schools identified as continually low-performing in 2023-24 actually represents a slight improvement from the previous 2022-23 school year, when ABSS had 17 schools that received that designation. The years used for the latest list of Continually Low-Performing Schools are the 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24 school years, according to DPI.
[Story continues below chart of each ABSS and its grades, as determined by state Department of Public Instruction, over past three school years.]
Each fall, DPI releases a list of low-performing schools and a list of continually low-performing schools.
The “Low-Performing Schools” list includes any K-12 traditional or public charter schools that received a School Performance Grade of ‘D’ or ‘F’ and an academic growth status of ‘met’ or ‘not met,’ which reflects whether students made expected progress from one year to the next.
DPI’s list of “Continually Low-Performing Schools” includes any traditional K-12 schools that received a School Performance Grade of ‘D’ or ‘F’ during at least two of the past three years, according to DPI. North Carolina charter schools are excluded from the state’s annual list of continually low-performing schools.
For 2023-24, the 16 ABSS schools designated as continually low-performing include: 11 elementary schools; three middle schools; Cummings High School; and one combined school, the Alamance Virtual School, which had served students in grades four through 12, until the beginning of the current school year, when the fourth and fifth grades were eliminated.
While there is some duplication in the names of ABSS schools that appear on the low-performing and continually low-performing lists, they’re not a mirror image.
For example, Southern and Woodlawn middle schools are on the low-performing list after receiving a School Performance Grade of D and failing to meet academic growth targets in 2023-24, but neither is on the list of continually low-performing schools.
Likewise, Alamance Virtual School and Broadview Middle School are on the list of continually low-performing schools but not on this year’s list of low-performing schools. Both were identified as low-performing in 2021-22 and 2022-23 but not in the 2023-24 school year, according to DPI.
Alamance Virtual School also reflects an anomaly, in that its School Performance Grade improved (from a D in 2022-23 to a C in 2023-24) but it still made the continually low-performing list based on academic performance for the two previous school years, according to DPI.
Statewide, 730 traditional K-12 public schools have been identified as continually low-performing in 2023-24, based on DPI’s latest report.
ABSS officials noted in a release Wednesday that four schools that had been on the state’s list of low-performing schools for 2022-23 came off the list this year, adding that two new ABSS schools have been identified as low-performing.
Statewide, 735 traditional K-12 traditional and public charter schools, as well as several “lab schools,” have been identified as “low-performing” in 2023-24. (The so-called lab schools are an initiative created by the General Assembly in 2016 to provide enhanced instruction for students in low-performing schools and training for future teachers enrolled in education programs at 15 participating UNC System institutions.)
The number of North Carolina K-12 schools identified as low-performing in 2023-24 reflects a modest improvement from the 2022-23 school year, when more than 800 K-12 traditional and charter schools statewide were identified as low-performing.
One charter school in Alamance County – Alamance Community School in Haw River, which currently serves students in kindergarten through grade six – has been identified as low-performing in 2023-24, after receiving a School Performance Grade of D and failing to meet academic growth targets.
None of the county’s three other charter schools – Clover Garden School, River Mill Academy, and The Hawbridge School – was identified as low-performing in 2023-24, according to DPI.
The A to F School Performance Grades are issued to all K-12 traditional and public charter schools and are largely based on year-end test scores in math, reading, and science, which accounts for 80 percent of each school’s letter grade. (School Performance Grades issued to high schools also reflect a number of other academic metrics, including the four-year graduation rate, scores on workplace readiness tests, and English learner progress.) Academic growth accounts for 20 percent of each school’s letter grade.
School Performance Grades are calculated according to the percentage of students who performed at or above grade level (i.e., “grade-level proficient”) on End-of-Grade (EOG) tests and End-of-Course (EOC) exams. Twenty percent of each school’s A to F grade is based on “growth,” which measures students’ predicted test scores, based on past performance, against actual test scores, according to DPI.
DPI bases its school performance grades on the following 15-point scale:
- A: 85-100
- B: 70-84
- C: 55-69
- D: 40-54
- F: 39 and below
A state law passed in 2013 requires public school systems with schools that are identified as low-performing or continually low-performing to send out written notices within 30 days, informing parents of the designation, as well as what measures will be taken to improve future academic performance. ABSS officials typically send out these notices around the middle of October.
ABSS also will be required to develop and incorporate strategies for improving students’ academic performance into school improvement plans (SIPs) for each of the 15 schools identified as low-performing and 16 schools identified as continually low-performing, in keeping with state law.
