Local school districts outperform state norms

Last week, North Carolina released report cards — but not for students.

The state published the 2012 North Carolina School Report Cards, which provide information about student achievement, teacher quality and school technology, among other categories.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and Orange County Schools both exceeded state averages in most categories — including student performance on end-of-grade and end-of-course tests and by percentage of teachers with advanced degrees.

But racial achievement gaps in both districts — as high as 40 percent in CHCCS — remains a problem.

CHCCS

Diane Villwock, director of testing and program evaluation for CHCCS, said the schools know about the data before the report cards are released and use it to adjust their goals throughout the year.

“The decisions that were made were already made before we saw the scores,” she said.

Some of these decisions include the adaptation of national Common Core curriculum standards and a proposed contract to work with the Institute for Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, Villwock said.

She said CHCCS students scored within the range they have scored in the past.

Jeff Nash, district spokesman, said the district is coming up with strategies to address its shortcoming.

“We want to make sure none of the students are slipping through the cracks,” he said.

Nash said the report cards are helpful because they break down the data into subgroups and categories that are easy to compare.

Michael Gilbert, spokesman for Orange County Schools, said the district has been satisfied with the improvement in the graduation rate and the decrease in the achievement gap.

“I think Orange County is doing very well,” he said. “We’re seeing continued growth in our students.”

Gilbert said the district would like to continue improving in all categories.

Tammy Howard, director of testing and accountability for North Carolina, said the report cards give strong feedback to help parents get involved in the decision-making process in their schools.

“It informs parents so that they know more about what is happening in the schools,” she said. “That itself is a conversation starter.”

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