Nineteen of the 36 Alamance-Burlington schools received a School Performance Grade of C or better for the 2023-24 school year, based on annual testing results released Wednesday by the state Department of Public Instruction (see accompanying chart for a snapshot of results by school and subject).
[Story continues below end-of-grade and end-of-court testing results for most recent three school years.]
The state’s School Performance Grades are intended to give parents and the public a snapshot of the percentage of K-12 public school students who were performing at grade level (i.e., grade-level proficient) by the end of the school year.
[Story continues below charts of recent ABSS school performance.]
The 36 ABSS schools to receive the A to F school performance grades for 2023-24 also includes the Alamance Virtual School, which initially opened in the fall of 2021 for kindergarten through 12th grade before it was pared back to grades four through 12, starting with the 2023-24 school year.
However, steadily declining enrollment at Alamance Virtual School that has followed the end of the Covid-19 pandemic has since prompted ABSS officials to eliminate grades four and five from the virtual school, effective with the 2024-25 school year that started August 26.
For the school system overall, 19 (52.8 percent) of the 36 schools that received an A to F letter grade – which now includes Southeast High School, which opened in August 2023 – received a C or better, based on the latest annual report on student achievement released Wednesday by the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
In keeping with its track record for several years running, the ABSS Early College, housed on Alamance Community College’s Graham campus, received the only School Performance Grade of A for 2023-24.
However, 17 (47.2 percent) of the 36 ABSS schools received a School Performance Grade of D or F for the 2023-24 school year, based on annual end-of-grade (EOG) test results in reading, math, and science at the elementary and middle schools. The School Performance Grades for high schools reflect not only end-of-course (EOC) test scores in math, English II, and biology but also scores on college entrance exams; completion rates in advanced math courses such as Math 3; English-language learner progress; four-year graduation rates; and results on workplace readiness skills tests.
The number of ABSS schools receiving a C or better improved slightly from the 2022-23 school year, when 18 (51.5 percent) of 35 schools received a C or better; and 17 schools (the same number, but now representing 48.6 percent) received a D or an F. (Southeast High School had not yet opened.)
School Performance Grades typically aren’t issued for the Career and Technical Education Center or the alternative school, Ray Street Academy, as those students’ academic performance results are included with the results for the traditional high schools to which they are assigned based on the location of their residences.
DPI assigns a numerical score for each School Performance Grade according to the following 15-point scale:
- A: 85-100
- B: 70-84
- C: 55-69
- D: 40-54
- F: 39 and below
EOG, EOC, and other test scores account for 80 percent of each school’s letter grade. Academic growth – which reflects progress made between one school year and the next – accounts for 20 percent of each school’s letter grade,
ABSS officials highlighted the fact Wednesday that 26 of the 35 schools had either met or exceeded academic growth targets in 2022-23.
The accompanying chart that outlines the EOG test results for the 20 ABSS elementary and seven middle schools (as well as the combined Alamance Virtual School) reflects the percentages of students in grades three through eight who were performing at grade level in math and reading, as well as the percentage of fifth and eighth-grade students who were performing at grade level in science by the end of the 2023-24 school year.
At the high school level, the A to F letter grades reflect multiple components, including: scores on End-of-Course exams (EOCs) in English II, Biology, and average passing rates in Math 3; the four-year graduation rate; as well as scores on “ACT WorkKeys” tests used to measure career and college readiness, along with several other “performance indicators.”
For 2023-24, three schools received Bs, representing 8.3 percent of the total: E.M. Yoder and Smith elementary schools; and Western High School (see accompanying chart).
Fifteen ABSS schools (41.7 percent) received Cs for 2023-24, including: eight elementary schools; two middle schools; and five high schools. [Alamance Virtual School received a single letter grade of C, which improved from a grade of D for the previous school year, for all grade spans served, according to DPI’s annual report].
Thirteen ABSS schools (36.1 percent) received a grade of D in 2023-24, an increase of four from the nine that received Ds during the previous school year. The schools receiving a School Performance Grade of D include: eight elementary schools; four middle schools; and Cummings High School.
Four ABSS schools received a School Performance Grade of F, or half as many as received an F for the previous 2022-23 school year. Fs were issued to three elementary schools (Haw River, Newlin, and North Graham) and one middle school (Graham Middle School), the latter of which has maintained a grade of F for each of the three post-pandemic school years since the state resumed year-end testing in 2022-22.
For the 20 ABSS elementary schools that received A to F performance grades, 17 saw no change in their grades between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years. Three elementary schools received a better grade than they had in 2022-23 (Eastlawn, E.M. Yoder, and Grove Park Elementary).
Two of the seven ABSS middle schools saw no change in their school performance grades between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years. Two middle schools (Broadview and Turrentine) received a better grade than they had last year. Three middle schools (Hawfields, Southern, and Woodlawn) saw their School Performance Grades decline in 2023-24, according to DPI.
For the seven traditional ABSS high schools, four received the same School Performance Grade for 2023-24 as they had the previous school year; Graham improved from a D to a C, and Western from a C to B. The 2023-24 school year marks the first academic performance results for Southeast High School.
ABSS officials highlighted the academic progress students made during the 2023-24 school year, which included: eight schools that exceeded growth targets; and 18 schools that met expectations. Ten schools were identified as having not met expected academic progress.
The 2023-24 academic results for ABSS have not yet been publicly presented to school board members.
To view the comprehensive academic performance results for ABSS in 2023-24 visit: https://bit.ly/3Zimu4M
