‘Work is cut out for us.’ Is CMS further behind on new reading, math goals for students?

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leaders say lower-than-expected results in state reading and math scores released last week will require more progress this school year.

The district’s school board set new student performance goals for the next five years in October as part of its 2024-29 strategic plan . Those goals are just now going into effect, and the just-released state data mean the district is starting short of estimates it used to set goals.

CMS Board Chair Stephanie Sneed said she’s not worried.

“We knew that could be a possibility when we set the goals, and our goals are meant to be challenging,” Sneed said. “Our expectation is the district will do those things to rise to those goals.”

The new state data comes from state testing outcomes the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction released last week as part of school accountability data. To meet the goals CMS’ board set for this year, the district will need to increase the percentage of students scoring at the highest level in reading and math assessments by 7% and 9%, respectively. District leaders say it’s a tall order.

Reading

This year’s end-of-grade reading scores for some grade levels were lower than CMS initially predicted a year ago.

CMS’ strategic plan seeks to raise the percentage of third through eighth grade students scoring as “college and career ready” on statewide reading assessments, which requires the highest possible scores of 4 or 5. CMS wants to increase the percentage of students in this classification to 50% by 2029.

When the district set this goal, it projected 34% of students would score 4s and 5s in 2024. But just 30% of students did that, according to performance data NCDPI released last week. It’s 1% lower than 2023.

Beth Thompson, CMS chief of strategy and innovation, said she believes the dip in scores is linked to learning loss during the pandemic.

“Many of these students were kindergarteners and first graders when instruction was interrupted,” Thompson said at a news conference last week. “It’s not an excuse, but it is something to pay attention to.”

While CMS initially anticipated having to raise reading scores for third through eighth graders by 3% percent in the next year, it now will have to raise them by 7% to stay on target for this year.

However, the district saw promising gains in kindergarten through second grade reading, particularly when it comes to closing gaps between white, Black and Hispanic students. CMS educators say the gains are a good sign for future reading scores as students get older.

“When kids leave second grade, they need to be reading because then we can really focus in grades three through five on comprehending what they’re reading and building vocabulary,” said Beth Marshall, principal at Druid Hills Elementary, which increased its school accountability grade by a full letter this year.

Math

Goal 3 in the district’s new plan is to raise the percentage of students scoring college and career ready on Math I state assessments to 57% by 2029. That would be a 30% leap over six years.

CMS projected 32% of students would score as college and career ready in 2024, but only 28% did. That means the district will need to raise students scoring 4 and 5 by 9% in just one year to stay on track — as opposed to the 5% increase initially planned.

“Our work is cut out for us this year,” Thompson said.

What do CMS leaders say?

Sneed says she’s encouraged the district will meet its goals because of the promising gains in early literacy and growth across the district this year. For the first time ever, CMS saw more schools rise out of the state’s “low-performing” designation than enter it, and 146 schools in the district met or exceeded growth targets.

Still, while 19 CMS schools rose out of the state’s “low-performing” designation between 2023 and 2024, 17 new ones entered.

Crystal Hill also has led the district as its permanent superintendent for just about a year. Sneed says the growth is an indication the district is on the right track — even if a district as big as CMS takes awhile to turn.

“We got some encouraging information. Our growth for our schools is the highest in history that we’ve had,” Sneed said. “I don’t want to say we’re anywhere near where we should be, but to see that, it means we’re making progress. These things are indicators that we’re moving in the right direction.”

Sneed also said the board will be paying close attention to student outcomes early and often so CMS can adjust as needed.

“There won’t be surprises because we have goal monitoring every single meeting, so there is detailed reporting every board meeting,” she said. “It causes us to course correct along the way, so we won’t be two years along saying ‘Oh my God, we haven’t met that goal.’”