Anson County Early College, Ansonville Elementary and Peachland-Polkton Elementary Schools all received a B in the annual School Performance Grade accountability measurement.
Across the state, more than one-third of the 2,537 schools earned As and Bs, with nearly three quarters meeting or exceeding expections for progress.
One county school, Anson High, received a C in school performance from the State Board of Education by the Public Schools of North Carolina.
About 22 percent statewide received a D or F; five Anson County schools picked up a D.
The four-year Cohort Graduation Rate was also released for the Class of 2018. The rate tracks students who entered ninth grade in 2014.
Anson High School, at 89.3 percent, and Anson County Early College, scoring above 95 percent, topped the state average of 86.3 percent.
In a news release, the state school system explained changes to the state’s accountability measurements required under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act means school grades, growth results and graduation rates for the 2017-18 school year are not comparable to past performance during the five years the state has assessed schools using A-F letter grades and 13 years reporting the cohort graduation rate. Schools, the state system said, are now accountable for the progress of non-English speaking students in mastering English skills and are also subject to a number of other changes affecting School Performance Grades, growth calculations and the graduation rate.
“In terms of the performance of individual students on state end-of-grade and end-of-course exams,” the state system said in a news release, “calculations for determining rates of Grade Level Proficiency (GLP) and College and Career Readiness (CCR) are unchanged from past years.”
The state school system said “school grades continue to correlate closely with the poverty levels of schools.”
For schools with more than 81 percent of students coming from low-income families, 69 percent of the schools received a D or F. In schools with poverty rates between 61 and 80 percent, 45 percent of the schools received a D or F.
In schools with poverty rates less than 20 percent, only 1.7 percent of schools received a D or F. For schools between 21 and 40 percent poverty, 3.6 percent received a D or F.
Each scoring a D, respectively, were Lilesville Elementary, Morven Elementary, Wadesboro Elementary, Wadesboro Primary School and Anson Middle School.
“I am very pleased with the academic growth progress made at our schools for the 2017-18 school term,” said Anson County Schools Superintendent Michael Freeman. “Data points at each school will be reviewed and utilized to revised school and district Annual Planning Tables or School Improvement Plans, allowing us to implement specific strategies to continue climbing upward with academic progress at each school.”
Freeman said that ACS will be providing a detailed report to the Anson County Board of Education and other stakeholders later when the N.C. Department of Public Instruction and the N.C. State Board of Education releases all assessment data.
He added that currently, a significant number of data points continue to be embargoed, and the presentation will be a full reflection of how school and district data has been reported for a number of years showing areas of strengths as well as areas to focus on for improvements.
“Our data will show where we have some extremely strong academic growth accomplishments as well as areas of improvements for us to focus on,” Freeman added. “All in all, I am very proud of the ACS instructional and support staff and our students for doing so well in comparisons to previous years; we are definitely headed in a favorable direction.”