TRULY PHENOMENAL DATA GAINS
“We gained seven points this year, and I want to really emphasize how unbelievable that is. Only nine districts last year gained three or more points. . . I don’t know what the state overall gain will be for proficiency this year, but I guarantee you, it will not be seven points. It won’t even be close, so we had truly a fantastic academic year. This is truly phenomenal data gains and is really closing our gap between where we are at as average and where the state average, and getting to that state average is one of our primary goals over the next few years.”
– Dr. Sean McWherter, ABSS assistant superintendent for academics
Alamance-Burlington school officials predict that ABSS won’t be designated as a low-performing district after preliminary results from end-of-course and end-of-grade tests showed an increase of 7 percentage points in students’ grade-level proficiency by the end of the 2025-26 school year.
ABSS officials took the unprecedented step of offering a preview of the preliminary testing results during the school board’s latest meeting Monday night – nearly three months before those results are scheduled to be released by the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI) – while also acknowledging that the academic results aren’t yet where they’d like them to be.
“I feel pretty confident in hypothesizing that we not be a low-performing district next year,” ABSS assistant superintendent of academics Dr. Sean McWherter said Monday night, referring to the state’s release of academic performance results for 2025-26.
DPI customarily releases its School Performance Grades for all traditional public and charter schools, along with its list of low-performing and continually low-performing schools and districts, on the first Thursday in September each year. School Performance Grades are intended to give 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 previous school year.
“Everybody knows the bad press we got last year; we were designated as a low-performing district,” McWherter told the board. “Many of our schools were designated as not meeting expected growth.”
[Story continues below ABSS summary of preliminary end-of-course, end-of-grade test scores. See summary chart of previous performance at end of story.]
McWherter attributed the designation as a low-performing district to a “1.6 [percent] drop in proficiency,” whereas he said that the state as a whole had gained eight-tenths of one 1 percentage point in proficiency during the previous, 2024-25 school year.
“We gained seven points this year, and I want to really emphasize how unbelievable that is,” McWherter said. “Only nine districts last year gained three or more points…I don’t know what the state overall gain will be for proficiency this year, but I guarantee you, it will not be seven points. It won’t even be close, so we had truly a fantastic academic year. This is truly phenomenal data gains and is really closing our gap between where we are at as average and where the state average, and getting to that state average is one of our primary goals over the next few years.”
ABSS was ranked in the bottom 20 districts among the state’s 115 K-12 public school systems, based on its EOC and EOG scores for the 2024-25 school year, based on a list of low-performing school districts that DPI released on August 29, 2025.
It marked the first year that ABSS had been designated as a low-performing district since the state began using its current academic evaluation criteria, the state’s A to F School Performance Grades, in 2013-14.
ABSS was designated as a low-performing district after a majority of its schools – 20 out of 36, or 55.6 percent – received a School Performance Grade of D or F, based on EOC and EOG testing results for the 2024-25 school year. The local school system was one of 23 public school systems to be designated as low-performing, according to DPI.
In addition to the 20 individual ABSS schools that were identified as low-performing (an increase from the 15 designated as low-performing the previous school year), 19 of those schools were also designated as continually low-performing after received a School Performance Grade of D or F for two of the three previous years, according to DPI.
However, ABSS reversed the trend during the 2025-26 school year, resulting in a 7 percent increase in overall proficiency on EOCs and EOGs, based on a handout that school officials distributed Monday morning, during a joint mediation session with Alamance County’s commissioners, as well as a subsequent presentation McWherter made to the board Monday night (see related story, this edition).
During his opening remarks to the commissioners on Monday morning, Fleming suggested that additional county funding would be needed to continue the academic improvements made during the school year that ended on June 5 (see related story, this edition).
“Even with limited resources, our educators have students have delivered a return on investment,” Fleming said during the first day of mediation in the superior courtroom at the Historic Court House.
BANNER YEAR FOR ACADEMICS
“This evening, during our monthly board of education meeting, you will find that this school year was a banner year for academics. Every tested area has shown increases in proficiency; many of our schools achieved double-digit proficiency increases and growth across multiple grade levels and content areas.
“When the Department of Public Instruction releases student growth data and School Performance Grades this fall, we anticipate that ABSS will be one of the most improved school districts across the state. This success didn’t happen by accident: it took our students, teachers, and district and school-based administrators digging deep and outperforming our resources.”
– ABSS Superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming
“This evening, during our monthly board of education meeting, you will find that this school year was a banner year for academics,” the superintendent told the commissioners. “Every tested area has shown increases in proficiency; many of our schools achieved double-digit proficiency increases and growth across multiple grade levels and content areas.
“When the Department of Public Instruction releases student growth data and School Performance Grades this fall, we anticipate that ABSS will be one of the most improved school districts across the state,” Fleming said. “This success didn’t happen by accident: it took our students, teachers, and district and school-based administrators digging deep and outperforming our resources.”
During the school board meeting later Monday night, Fleming said that the presentation on the preliminary academic results for 2025-26 hadn’t been attached to the meeting agenda posted on the ABSS website because his administration had wanted it to be a surprise.
“This data is going to give us a lot to celebrate,” McWherter told the board Monday night. “However, it lets us see we’re not there yet.”
Understanding ‘growth’
“School growth is about more than proficiency,” McWherter told the board Monday night. “You can see schools make tremendous growth and barely move proficiency at all, and you can see schools that gain proficiency but decrease growth because students are moving the wrong way in their levels of proficiency.
“However, based on our initial assessments – DPI gives us projections where our students should end up – overall, our schools were absolutely killing it,” McWherter added.
As McWherter alluded, a number of factors determine whether schools meet academic growth targets (i.e., “school growth”) that DPI establishes for the state’s K-12 public schools. EOG and EOC test scores account for 80 percent of each school’s grade; students who earn scores of three or better are considered “proficient” in the subject matter tested. Academic growth accounts for the remaining 20 percent of the each school’s performance (letter) grade.
At the elementary and middle school level, the statewide tests are administered in grades three through eight only, according to DPI. Academic growth reflects the progress that students make from one year to the next on End-of-Grade (EOG) tests in math, reading (English Language Arts), and science in grades five and eight, as well as on benchmark tests at the beginning of and throughout the school year.
At the high school level, growth is measured, in part, by the progress students make from one year to the next in Math I, Math III, biology, and English II, as measured by on End-of-Course (EOC) test scores.
Other factors include: average ACT subject exam scores in 11th grade; WorkKeys tests for students who are “concentrators” in career and technical education; four-year graduation rates; and the percentage of students deemed “career and college ready” (CCR), i.e., ready to enter the workforce or enroll at a college or university without the need for remediation. Academic growth targets are further differentiated for various subgroups of students, such as “English learners” and economically disadvantaged students, according to DPI.
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
The same numerical scale applies to subject-area test scores and other academic performance results that DPI releases each fall.
For his part, Fleming conceded that some ABSS schools could reappear on the list of individual low-performing schools that DPI is set to release in September.
“I’m shocked but not surprised,” Fleming told the board Monday night. “We wanted to do this; we felt like we could do this. We felt this in the climate within the school, so we knew we were headed in a right direction…We’ll want to keep this momentum going.”
Fleming conceded that, since taking over as superintendent in September 2024, there have been times when he wondered if he and his administration would be able to turn things around in ABSS. “Are we going to be able to pull this school district out of the fiscal issues, and we’ve been able to. Are we going to be able to pull the school district through some of the facility issues? That’s ongoing, and we continue to do that. That third leg to the stool, if you will, was around academics. While I don’t want to say it’s finished – we will still have some low-performing schools – we want to make sure we’re getting up to that state average, and I think we’ve taken a pretty good bite out of it this year at 7 proficiency points. So I am very optimistic; we want to be able to celebrate, but we won’t be able to celebrate until this fall, when we have all the data from DPI. We don’t want to jump the gun too much. I will say, we’ve got to be the first school district in North Carolina to present this data this early, but it’s going to feel good, because we have people unfortunately betting against us.
“It is not where we want to be, but it is certainly moving in the right direction, and that is to be applauded,” school board chairman Sandy Ellington-Graves said during a brief discussion that followed McWherter’s presentation Monday night.
Other school board members also applauded the positive academic trajectory in 2025-26.
“I didn’t get in this seat to keep it warm, to look nice on camera,” school board member Tameka Harvey responded. “I truly believe in advocating for what’s right; I truly believe in advocating for each and every student that enters the school building every day, whether they are mine or not. I believe in our students: I believe in what they can do and what they will do. But…we need other elected leaders to stand behind us and do what’s right. I believe in fully funding public education, and I believe that it takes all of us [working] together to get it done. We cannot do it by ourselves; we need people to stand behind us and give us the extra boost, or at least say, ‘You know what, we’re in this together.’”
School board member Dr. Charles Parker said, “The expression is, ‘We’ve come a long way.’ We’ve got a long way to go [but the improvement so far] – it’s not one weird trick; it’s consistency.”
Board member Avery Wagoner agreed that ABSS is on the right track. “[We’re here to] serve this community, citizens, staff and families and to do what we think is best for all, not just for a few. We take our jobs very serious; we take our finances very seriously, and I think this board has done a really good job…We told you there was good news coming academically, [but] we can’t stand on our laurels just because we’ve had one good year.”
“We started a meeting this morning at 9:30; we adjourned the meeting and came straight here,” Ellington-Graves said, referring to the mediation with Alamance County’s commissioners earlier Monday. “I just appreciate your patience and your leadership today. It’s really nice as the chair to be able to [cast unanimous votes], and it’s nice to be a collective unit. I think that we all agree, even though we have different perspectives, it’s always what’s best for the children.
“Thank you to you,” she told her board colleagues, “and to our administration and cabinet. We’ve got some really good things going, and I’m excited to end this school year on a really high note…I want us to outperform ourselves next year and the year after [that].”
Looking ahead
Asked by The Alamance News Monday night what they attribute the academic improvements to, ABSS officials told the newspaper Tuesday, “In academics, we are getting back to the basics and doing them well. This includes data-driven decision making, instruction that is aligned with standards, common assessments, and increasing the rigor of work.
“Dr. McWherter presented his plan [last] August and has consistently shared this message with leadership and school staff,” ABSS officials said. “The district is also seeing positive momentum in school culture and perceptions of the district. District leadership has worked to increase stability in operations and finances. Schools adopted the cellphone-free policy aligned with state law.
“Data from the recent Teacher Working Conditions survey show increased positive perceptions of the district; all of these factors contribute to building a foundation for academics,” school officials said. “We are focused on what we know works and remaining consistent.”
School board members also heard a presentation Monday night on about ongoing efforts to update the ABSS strategic plan for 2026-30 to clarify priorities and set measurable goals in order to prepare future graduates for higher education, military enlistment, or the workforce.
Asked whether the forthcoming strategic plan update will include a goal year for when ABSS hopes a majority of students will be grade-level proficient (GLP) in math, reading, and science, school officials said that a majority of students – which they defined as 50 percent or greater – are already on track to be proficient in those areas.
“Data from this year shows that we have a majority of students who have met grade-level proficiency in many of the tested areas (English II, Math III, 8th Grade Science, etc),” according to a statement that ABSS chief communications officer Emily-Lynn Adkins provided to the newspaper Tuesday. (See related story, this edition, for a breakdown of preliminary test scores by grade level and subject area tested.)
“The data also provides a roadmap for continued improvement. We are targeting the next [three to four] years to get a majority of students up to grade-level proficiency across all areas and grad spans. Ultimately, we don’t plan to stop with the majority. We want to continue the positive momentum because every percentage point represents a student who is better prepared for their future.”
School board vice chairman Dan Ingle and board member Dr. Eric Hall were absent from the meeting Monday night.
Read the newspaper’s editorial page views on the ABSS test data here: https://alamancenews.com/heres-hoping-abss-is-getting-better-than-low-performing/
Historical data on school performance follows.
Historical data of individual school performance:
