Data released Wednesday by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction for the 2014-2015 school year is encouraging for the Vance County School System.
Eight Vance County Schools increased performance by one letter grade as determined by the state required School Performance grading system. The four-year cohort graduation rate increased by more than four percentage points from the previous school year.
These results also indicate that Vance County Schools’ third-grade students improved their reading proficiency by nine percentage points in 2014-2015 based on the N.C. Read to Achieve standards.
Schools increasing their School Performance Grade from the previous year were Aycock Elementary School, Dabney Elementary School, New Hope Elementary School, Pinkston Street Elementary School, E.M. Rollins Elementary School, E.O. Young Jr. Elementary School, Zeb Vance Elementary School and the Vance County Early College High School. Aycock and Early College were designated as “B” schools. There were five schools designated as “C” schools and they included Clarke, Dabney, Pinkston Street, Zeb Vance and STEM Early High School. Seven schools were “D” schools and included Carver Elementary, New Hope Elementary, E.M. Rollins Elementary, E.O. Young Jr. Elementary, Northern Vance High and Southern Vance High. Eaton-Johnson Middle and Henderson Middle were designated as “F” schools. Western Vance High School, as an alternative school setting, is evaluated on the state’s Alternative Accountability Model.
The district’s graduation rate improved to 77.5 percent from 73.2 percent for the 2013-2014 school year. Vance County Schools’ four-year cohort graduation rate has now increased by 13.4 percent over the last three school years. The 2014-2015 graduation rate at Southern Vance High increased from 78 to 81 percent. The graduation rate at Northern Vance High improved from 72 to 77 percent and the graduation rate at Early College High rose from 84 to 89 percent. Western Vance High School had a 100-percent graduation rate for the second consecutive year.
The N.C. Read to Achieve grade-level proficiency increased in 2014-2015 from the previous year for third-grade students in seven of the district’s 10 elementary schools. The district’s overall proficiency level went from 71 percent to 80 percent for 2014-2015. New Hope Elementary led the way with 96 percent of their third graders reaching proficiency reading levels for 2014-2015, compared to only 47 percent from the previous school year. Other school results included third-grade reading proficiency increasing for: Zeb Vance to 92 percent from 71 percent; Pinkston Street to 84 percent from 68 percent; Clarke to 80 percent from 68 percent; E.M. Rollins to 79 percent from 68 percent; E.O. Young to 71 percent from 67 percent; and L.B. Yancey to 51 percent from 49 percent. Aycock still had 91 percent of their third graders reading at grade level, but this was a decline from 96 percent the previous year. Carver third graders’ reading proficiency also declined from 83 percent in 2013-2014 to 77 percent in 2014-2015. Dabney’s third-grade reading proficiency remained the same at 74 percent.
Vance County Schools’ officials are encouraged by the academic growth demonstrated by students at all grade levels on state end-of-grade tests in reading and math and end-of-course tests in certain subject areas for the 2014-2015 school year. Students at Clarke Elementary exceeded growth expectations for the second consecutive year and nine schools met growth expectations. The nine schools where students met growth expectations were Aycock, Dabney, New Hope, Pinkston Street, L.B. Yancey, Zeb Vance, Eaton-Johnson, Western Vance and Vance County Early College. This is an improvement over the district’s performance where in 2013-2014 there were 11 schools that did not meet growth, compared to seven in 2014-2015. During the 2013-2014 school year, only four local schools met growth. Local schools showing the most growth in each grade span from one year to the next were New Hope, Eaton-Johnson and Early College.
“We continue to move in the right direction in many areas of performance,” said Dr. Trixie Brooks, assistant superintendent. “Our four-year cohort graduation rate continues to increase each year and we celebrate that fact. We desire every child who enrolls in our school system to graduate and we will give students opportunities to catch up if they are behind and opportunities to keep up to master content in current courses.
“As teachers learn and own the curriculum standards and as students meet the challenges of its rigor, we expect to continue to see increases in student performance,” she continued. “We want our students to persevere through challenging text in all subjects, to work out multi-step complex math problems until they understand the process, to track their own progress until they master standards and to set personal goals.
“We have some areas we will address through our Instructional Framework and strategic planning, but we are proud of our progress,” Brooks said.
