GARNER, N.C. — North Carolina released the state accountability report Wednesday showing where students are at with their education.

What You Need To Know

  • The North Carolina Accountability Report was released Wednesday

  • The report shows test results and school performance for the 2022-23 school year

  • Results are higher than the previous year but still not at pre-pandemic levels

 

A summary of the report shows a lot of growth in the 2022-23 school year, but test scores and performance are still not quite up to pre-pandemic levels.

“It was just very challenging to try and keep their focus when they're sitting down in front of a computer all day,” Lorena Fuentes said.

Fuentes, a Wake County mom, says it was difficult during the pandemic to step in as a teacher for her kids.

“As much as you try,” Fuentes said. “You're not prepared like the teachers really are to be able to help them and give them that education that they really need.”

Although the pandemic brought many disruptions to teaching and learning in North Carolina schools, recent test results show that there has been growth over the past couple years even if numbers haven’t quite reached pre-pandemic levels.

The report showed that 72% of North Carolina schools met or exceeded growth expectations. The number of low-performing schools decreased from 864 to 804 last year. That number is still larger than the 488 low-performing schools seen before the pandemic. However, it shows that there is still room for improvement.

“We certainly want to take this moment to celebrate the achievements we've made while being aware of the responsibility that comes with it,” said Tammy Carey, principal of Rand Road Elementary School. “There's always room to grow. There's always more to learn.”

In Wake County, the overall proficiency rate on standardized tests was 63.4% last year compared to 61.4% in 2021. That’s all compared to before the pandemic when overall proficiency was at 65.2%, but teachers say they’re working their way back up.

“Letting the students know that our focus is them and encouraging them, I think is going to continue to have them make an impact on them,” teacher Dana Robertson said. “It's going to continue to have them to want to move forward and not just rest on the fact that the pandemic, you know, that they're going to be maybe some a little bit behind, but that they can rise to the occasion. That there are going to be some setbacks in life, and this is just an early way to help teach them to grow through it and how to persevere through it.”

School staff say there’s been a lot of hard work poured into the results of this report. They’ve been working on parent involvement, kids’ social and emotional needs, building relationships and investing in teachers. They say all of this is what makes growth possible.