Regional director highlights Madison County Schools' work as yearly grade report cards in

Johnny Casey, Asheville Citizen Times
·4 min read
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Students from Hot Springs Elementary School were all smiles during the first week of classes Aug. 21. On Sept. 6, the state Department of Public Instruction released its report cards for state schools. Hot Springs was one of two schools in the county to receive a B grade.
Students from Hot Springs Elementary School were all smiles during the first week of classes Aug. 21. On Sept. 6, the state Department of Public Instruction released its report cards for state schools. Hot Springs was one of two schools in the county to receive a B grade.

MARSHALL - The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction released its annual report cards for state schools, and the state's regional director highlighted Madison County Schools' work in particular.

"Madison County Schools has a motto of 'Making It Happen' and that is exactly what they do, providing an amazing return on their community’s investment every year,” Jeremy Gibbs, DPI's western regional director, said in a Sept. 8 Madison County Schools release.

In its annual report released Sept. 6, the state DPI said students continued to recover ground lost to the COVID pandemic, with gains across virtually all grades, subjects and student subgroups.

Madison County schools continue to perform above the state average in areas such as career and college readiness, grade level proficiency and four- and five-year cohort graduation rate. Madison County Schools also saw a marked increase in academic growth in 2022-23 with no low performing schools.

Madison County Schools Superintendent Will Hoffman said the year-end results reflect the school system's commitment to excellence.

“Our school system continues to maintain a high standard in our academic accountability results, and we continue to rank among the best school systems in North Carolina," Hoffman said. "The achievement of our students and staff is remarkable, and it underscores our vision that when we all pull together as a learning community, we can achieve anything. The success of our students can be credited to our amazing administrators, teachers and staff who are 'Making It Happen' in every classroom, in every school, every day."

Report cards

The student achievement data for the 2022-23 school year is based on analysis of all end-of-grade (EOG) and end-of-course (EOC) tests, DPI said in the release.

According to the release, more than one in four of the state’s 2,598 public schools earned a School Performance Grade of an A or B; with nearly two out of every three receiving a C or better.

Madison County Schools' grade breakdowns are as follows:

  • Brush Creek Elementary: C

  • Hot Springs Elementary: B

  • Mars Hill Elementary: C

  • Madison Middle School: C

  • Madison High School: C

  • Madison Early College High School: B

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt said last year’s accountability results show that schools remain on track to recover from the significant setbacks caused by COVID-19.

“It’s hard to overstate the impact of the pandemic, but teachers across North Carolina are working harder than ever to help students recover, and more importantly, advance in their learning," Truitt said in the release. "We owe them our gratitude for meeting this challenge to improve outcomes for students."

Truitt said the 2022-23 results mark the second consecutive year the state has seen gains that were greater than any of the several years preceding the pandemic losses.

Madison County Schools scored a 61% level of proficiency ranking for all subjects and allstudents. The state level of proficiency average was 54%.

Other highlights from the annual report include:

  • MCS is ranked first in the state for the five-year graduation rate of about 95%. The state’saverage five-year graduation rate is 87.7%.

  • MCS is ranked third in the Western Region of N.C. for grade level proficiency.

  • MCS is ranked 10th in the state (out of 115 school districts) for grade level proficiency.

  • MCS Math Course Rigor is about 95% (first in the state).

  • MCS ACT and WorkKeys assessment results scored above the state average.Please see below for a complete breakdown of MCS percent proficiency by grade level of all subject areascompared to the state average.

More: Asheville City, Buncombe County schools performance grades are in for 2022-23 year

Madison County Schools Assistant Superintendent Lisa Gahagan said she was proud of the students and staff's resilience.

"Madison County Schools students and staff have persevered academically, physically, emotionally and socially throughout the past couple years," Gahagan said.

"Our students and staff have adapted and continued to achieve. We are proud to say that we have stayed in the top 10 in the state in proficiency levels. Our students and staff work extremely hard and I couldn’t be more proud of this achievement.”

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Annual report: Regional director commends Madison County Schools' work