Students in early elementary grades in North Carolina public schools continue to show gains in literacy skills, according to results of a key assessment administered during the middle of the current school year.
The percentage of North Carolina students on track in each grade – kindergarten through third – performing at or above the benchmark score of the 2022-23 school year was both higher than assessment results from the beginning of the school year and also higher than results from states or districts using the same assessment.
The gains by North Carolina students were achieved during the second full year of a far-reaching statewide initiative to support elementary school teachers with extensive training in instruction based on the “science of reading,” a phonics-based approach with strong evidence of effectiveness.
Additionally, North Carolina’s statewide results show that fewer students mid-year were well below assessment benchmarks and in need of intensive intervention. Disaggregated results show that white, Asian, Black, Hispanic, and American Indian student groups all made gains from the beginning of the school year, and all except Hispanic and American Indian students outpaced other states and districts using the same assessment. Yet the mid-year gains made by all student groups in North Carolina were greater than students given the same assessment in other states.
State education leaders are encouraged by the latest assessment outcomes, which they say indicate that schools across the state are implementing science of reading-based practices even as many teachers are still learning about the instructional approach through the two-year professional development program, Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, or LETRS.
Improving early literacy outcomes has been a core tenant for the State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt and has been highlighted in her four-year strategic plan called Operation Polaris. Superintendent Truitt said she believes the latest results are strong evidence that the state’s commitment to instruction informed by the “science of reading” is helping more students gain the foundational literacy skills needed to master reading.
“On top of all the other hard work that teachers do in their classrooms every day, they’ve been spending many hours outside the classroom learning to retool their instructional practices,” Truitt said. “They’re to be commended, as their work has helped improve literacy proficiency and outcomes for students across the state.”