Randolph County Schools review last year’s school accountability data

ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Schools Board of Education was presented with the district’s 2024-25 school performance data at its Sept. 15 meeting.

The data, which is provided by the state, measures the academic performance and growth of each school in North Carolina and gives them a school performance grade based on a 15-point scale.

Randolph County Schools had one ‘A’ school (Randolph Early College High School), two ‘B’ schools, 16 ‘C’ schools, 12 ‘D’ schools and one ‘F’ school (The Virtual Academy at Randolph, which has since been closed).

Compared to last year, the district had four schools increase their letter grade and 23 schools increase their overall numerical grade.

“We have a lot of work to do, but we made a lot of progress this year,” superintendent Stephen Gainey said.

In terms of growth, which compares all schools within the state, the district had 21 schools meet or exceed expected growth, compared to 2023-24, when they had 14.

“I’m very excited about our growth and really excited about where some of the schools are sitting right now,” Gainey said.

However, 13 schools were designated as low-performing schools, meaning that they received either a ‘D’ or ‘F’ school performance grade while also not exceeding expected growth, although the district did have 15 of those last year.

“We continue to push down the number of low-performing schools,” Gainey said. “It says 13, but really what we’re dealing with is 12 because one of the 13 is the school that was closed. We also had two schools, one increased their number grade by 11, the other 12, and they still couldn’t get out of that range. When you start bumping your number grade up five, six points or more, I think that’s significant.”

Gainey also stated that the district had four low-performing schools that were just one point away from getting out of the low-performing designation.

“When these schools are just one point away, that could really be exciting next year,” board chair Gary Cook.

In terms of long term federal goals, the district is falling a bit behind, with no schools meeting the metrics for reading or math.

“The federal long-term goals are actually levels four and five and the baseline was set in 2015-2016 with targeted goals for schools to reach for completion by 2027-28,” said Meredith Weipert, director of testing and accountability.

“We’ll continue to work hard to keep getting better,” Gainey said.

The Randolph County Schools Board of Education will next meet Oct. 20.