Board of Education learns pandemic-affected testing results

Oct. 20—HAMLET — Although test results are below pre-pandemic levels across the county, state and locally, Richmond County Schools officials are confident that scores will rebound.

"The [2021-22] results will show that we're recovering, but we have some work to do," said Jennifer Taylor, director of testing accountability, to the RCS Board of Education at their Tuesday, Oct. 4 meeting.

In Richmond County Schools last year, of 9,085 tested students, 56.1% are considered non-proficient based on the analysis of all of the end-of-grade and end-of-course tests which are aligned to state standards. In the 2018-19 year, 44.1% of students were considered non-proficient.

"We are not at our former levels," Taylor said.

Of the over 2 million students tested in North Carolina in 2021-22, about half (48.6%) are considered not proficient by state standards.

In 2020, the NC Department of Public Instruction was granted a waiver from the US Department of Education for school accountability and school performance grades. Testing was not performed that school year.

Due to the lack of data, Director for the Department of Public Instruction Tammy Howard cautioned in a press release that 2021-22 data must be considered within the context of disruptions caused by COVID-19.

"Since March 2020, the changes in instruction, particularly related to time and place, restrict the feasibility of typical comparisons of student achievement across years," Howard said. "Educational data must be viewed as before, during, and eventually after COVID."

In Richmond County, Taylor said the reading proficiency is below pre-pandemic levels, and that science scores are down across the state and in Richmond County. In RCS, the eighth grade reading level proficiency exceeded the statewide composite score.

"All things considered, while our test results so far do show some loss in proficiency, our data also shows us that we are clearly making progress for recovering the loss," Taylor said.

For grades 3-8, Richmond County outperformed Anson, Polk, Montgomery and Scotland County in math, while falling eight points below the state average. Math 1 scores in Richmond County outperformed all neighboring districts and exceeded the state average by nine points.

The graduation rate has remained consistent in Richmond County. Richmond Senior High School achieved a 81% cohort graduation rate in a pandemic-affected year, which Richmond Early College exceeded a 95% graduation, aligning with the previous six years.

Taylor said the district has hired a student support specialist who is focusing on dropout prevention and will be working to ensure that more students graduate.

"That's something that cannot be overcome in a year," chairman Wiley Mabe said about the learning loss from the pandemic.

Board member Scotty Baldwin asked if there is a projected timeline for when testing scores could return back to pre-pandemic levels. Executive director of curriculum and instruction Dr. Kate Smith responded that she's heard that state officials believe it will be about three to five years, and added that Director of Innovation Strategy at the NCDPI Dr. Angie Mullennix was coming to a RCS curriculum meeting to share strategies from other districts.

Interim Superintendent Dennis Quick said that teachers are "intensive" on their strategies to improve student focus and performance.

Mabe concluded the discussion by sharing a concern from a teacher at the Ninth Grade Academy.

"She said, 'I track these kids from kindergarten. They have fallen so short of what their potential was at the end of third grade,'" Mabe said. He followed up by asking Associate Superintendent of HR Dr. Julian Carter about classroom sizes.

Carter shared that, by law, kindergarten classes must have a 1:15 teacher-student ratio and have no more than 18 students per classroom. In first grade, a 1:16 teacher-student ratio must be maintained with no more than 19 students in a classroom, with a 1:17 ratio and no more that 20 students in second and third grade.

Carter said that middle schools average around 21 to 24 students in a room, although there may be more.

"Averages are very tight this year," Carter said. "Certainly, we start seeing bigger classes in high school."