It will be interesting, indeed, to see the creative approach ABSS officials will try to take to explain away the absolutely dreadful, utterly dismal, rankings of the school system, based on state performance data released this week.
It will take some real verbal jujitsu to make the recently-released results of testing seem anything other than alarming, appalling, even tragic.
ABSS has had poorly performing schools before. So, unfortunately, that’s nothing new.
What is new this year is that the entire school system, itself, is now labeled by the state Department of Public Instruction as ‘low- performing.’
ABSS is now one of the 20 worst in the state: one of 23 out of the state’s 115 school systems where the school system as a whole is labeled by the state as ‘low-performing.’
ABSS is also the largest of the 20 lowest-performing school districts in the state.
Now, we know we have a number of school system defenders who think we’re overly harsh on this page in our assessment of the school system and its school board.
But this week’s harsh assessment of ABSS performance is not just an opinion of The Alamance News. It is the composite description from the state education department’s assessment of all 115 school districts across the state.
Over 55 percent (20 of 36 schools, or 55.6 percent, to be exact) of ABSS schools are listed as ‘low-performing.’
Making this year’s statistics all the more dreadful is the comparison with other school systems across the state, where, for the most part, test scores improved.
Actually, statewide, test scores are the highest in three years.
New statewide test scores released Wednesday show that 55 percent of the state’s students were proficient on state exams during the 2024-25 school year. That’s up from 54.2% the prior year but still below the pre-pandemic proficiency rate of 58.8% in the 2018-19 school year.
But in ABSS traditional schools, as few as 27 percent (Graham Middle School) and only as high as 72 percent (at Smith Elementary) were proficient (not counting the Early College, the only “A” grade among all ABSS schools).
Even worse is the trend. The average total score among all ABSS schools is barely over 50 percent: 51.11 for 2024-2025, down from 53.17 in 2023-2024, and down from 54.74 in 2022-2023.
Something’s clearly wrong in Alamance County, and it doesn’t take long to see what – and, to some extent, why.
If one’s priorities are revealed by what school officials and school board members talk about most during their semi-monthly meetings, it’s not hard to see that academic achievement isn’t very high on the list of priorities. But it should be.
One can attend or watch months upon months of school board meetings without hearing any discussion – much less any substantive focus – about academic performance, a desire to improve performance, or anything remotely educational.
Oh, school board members can come up with, and talk for hours about, all sorts of new spending ideas, like squandering thousands of tax dollars to establish a new pay supplement plan for cafeteria workers, custodians, and bus drivers. As though that would contribute toward improving academics.
They can harangue at the General Assembly over when school should start each fall and bemoan the “limits” current state law places on their “choices.” Even to the point of considering violating state law because the school board doesn’t like the current parameters for the school year. Again, totally extraneous to improving test scores or academic performance.
They can, and often do, rant at the county commissioners for not providing enough money – even when the commissioners provide record high levels of funding.
They can talk about roofs, heating and air conditioning, and other “facility needs.” But it doesn’t seem to matter how much money is spent fixing up the buildings, not much focus is ever spent talking, or doing anything, about what’s going on – or at least what’s supposed to be going on – inside those same buildings.
Among the expected excuses or rationalizations for this performance, we’re pretty sure we’ll get a healthy dose of how academic testing doesn’t really gauge how much students are learning.
Of course, everywhere else is having to use these same state-imposed standards, but ABSS will always find some excuse for why it shouldn’t be held to the same standards as all other school districts across the state.
(The fact that every other school and school system in the state has to meet the same standards provides little in the way of justifications to excuse this year’s ABSS “report card.”)
The “honeymoon” period for the new superintendent is just about up. He’s been here almost a full year. And there’s not much – certainly no measurable, noticeable improvements – to his credit thus far.
We think much of the focus of the first year of his tenure has been very greatly misplaced – as has most of the emphasis of school board members.
We don’t know if the incumbent officials – from superintendent on down at the central office – or incumbent school board members are capable of righting the sad state of academic performance.
But we wish they’d at least try.
Starting with even an occasional admission of the dire state of the current situation and a heartfelt and determined commitment to striving to improve it.
But the school system was silent in seven languages when these results were released yesterday.
The county’s taxpayers deserve a better result from the tens of millions of their local tax dollars being poured into the school system.
But the even greater disservice is to the students who are not being taught the fundamentals that others across the state are learning. It’s going to continue to put ABSS’ graduating seniors at a huge disadvantage in getting into the best colleges and doing well wherever they go.
That’s the ultimate tragedy of this year’s report card on the school system’s poor performance.
