Office of the Superintendent
Purnell Swett High School
11344 Deep Branch Rd.
Maxton, NC 28372
November 2, 2022
Dear Parent/Guardian,
Legislation (G.S. §115C-83.15) passed during the 2013 long session of the North Carolina General Assembly provides parents with an additional measure of school performance in the form of School Performance Grades. Beginning with the 2013–14 school year, the annual North Carolina School Report Cards display a letter grade of A, B, C, D, or F for each school in the state.
The School Performance Grades are based 80 percent on our school’s achievement score (student proficiency) and 20 percent on students’ academic growth. At Purnell Swett High School, our achievement score for the 2021-2022 school year is based on how well our students performed on NC Math 1, NC Math 3, English II, and Biology, and additional indicators including English Learner Progress, ACT/ACT WorkKeys, Math Course Rigor, and the 4-Year Cohort Graduation Rate).
The purpose of this letter is to inform you that Purnell Swett High School has been designated as a low performing school and the Public Schools of Robeson County has been designated as a low performing district by the North Carolina State Board of Education. A low performing district is one in which the majority of the schools in the district have been identified as low-performing schools. The State Board of Education has found that 57.1% (20/35) of schools in the Public Schools of Robeson County have been identified as low performing.
As defined in G.S. 115C-105.37: “The State Board of Education shall identify low-performing schools on an annual basis. Low-performing schools are those that earn an overall school performance grade of D or F and a school growth score of "met expected growth" or "not met expected growth" as defined by G.S. 115C-83.15.”
Purnell Swett High School received a School Performance Grade of “D”. and a growth designation of (Insert Met or Did Not Meet here.) for the 2021–2022 school year. Although we are committed to improving this score, it is important to remember that just as no one single score or grade tells the whole story of a student, neither does it tell you everything about the performance of a school or the opportunities that our school provides.
One of our top priorities for 2022–2023 is to improve the School Performance Grade in each school. There are a number of key programs we have in place to help improve student performance. These include:
Classworks is used to create individualized instruction based on student assessment results.
APEX Learning is used to support the needs of all students - remediation and enrichment.
No Red Ink offers individualized writing and a grammatical curriculum that builds strong writers and critical thinkers.
School Net is used to support student success and improve standard aligned teaching.
As a low performing district, we are required to develop an improvement plan that specifically addresses how the district will improve both the school performance grade and school growth score of each low-performing school in the unit, and how the superintendent and other central office administrators will work with each low-performing school and monitor the low-performing school's progress. The preliminary plan will be presented to our local school board at their next meeting, on October 11, 2022, where the plan will be presented for approval. The final plan for improvement will be available on our local district website at the Public Schools of Robeson County Website. (https://www.robeson.k12.nc.us/)
We hope you will closely follow your student’s academic progress and work with his or her teacher(s) to help ensure they stay on track academically. Working together as a team, we can improve not only how well our students are performing individually, but how our schools are performing as a whole. There is nothing more important to administrators and teachers at Purnell Swett High School than ensuring students are ready for the next step in their academic careers. We look forward to working with you to make sure your student is on track for success.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding our School Performance Grade and how we plan to improve the schools within our district, please don’t hesitate to contact Mr. Clyde Leviner at 910-521-3253.
Sincerely,
Clyde E. Leviner