Robeson County students joined students across the state with overall gains in the 2022-2023 school year.
State test results from the 2022-2023 school year recently presented to the State Board of Education reveal that PSRC students continue to recover from learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Improvement
District leaders attribute student gains in grades 3-8 on the North Carolina End-of-Grade Assessments to the EL Education and Eureka Math ² curricula. English Language Arts results improved by 3.8% from 27.2% in 2022 to 31% in 2023. Math results improved by 5.7% from 27.5% in 2022 to 33.2% in 2023.
For high school students in the district, Math 1 results improved 6.4% from 22.7% in 2022 to 29.1% in 2023. Additionally, Math 3 results improved by 10.7% and Biology results by 9.6% from the previous year. English 2 results increased by 1.1% from 37.5% in 2022 to 38.6% in 2023.
Status
Overall, 72% of PSRC schools met or exceeded growth. However, the PSRC school district has maintained a low-performing status due to 22 schools being identified as low-performing in the district.
The following schools met growth:
- Deep Branch Elementary School
- Fairgrove Elementary School
- Long Branch Elementary School
- Lumberton Senior High School
- Orrum Middle School
- Parkton Elementary School
- Pembroke Elementary School
- Pembroke Middle School
- Peterson Elementary School
- Piney Grove Elementary School
- Purnell Swett High School
- Rex Rennert Elementary School
- South Robeson Middle School
- Tanglewood Elementary School
- W. H. Knuckles Elementary School
The following schools exceeded growth:
- PSRC Early College at RCC
- East Robeson Primary School
- Lumberton Jr. High School
- Magnolia Elementary School
- Oxendine Elementary School
- Prospect Elementary School
- Red Springs High School
- Rowland Norment Elementary School
- St. Pauls High School
- Union Chapel Elementary School
- Union Elementary School
Curriculum
In August 2022-23, elementary and middle schools in Public Schools of Robeson County implemented EL Education, a reading curriculum designed to engage students, get them reading at grade level, and fully prepare them for the following school year. In addition, the district also implemented Eureka Math², a math program designed to advance math achievement by helping students build enduring math knowledge and apply math concepts to authentic situations.
Prior to the rollout of the new curricula, teachers and school leaders were provided with multi-day training on the new curriculum, practices and standards. They also received ongoing resources, coaching feedback and one-on-one support to implement the new, high-quality coursework in their elementary and middle school classrooms.
“The efforts of the teachers and administrators are noteworthy,” said Dr. Windy Dorsey-Carr, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction and Accountability.
“They have created rich and meaningful learning experiences that build knowledge and confidence in our students, equip them with skills to tackle complex literacy and math tasks and engage with high-level texts as strong readers and writers,” Dorsey-Carr said.
As the school district moves into the second year of implementation of EL Education K-8 Language Arts Curriculum and Eureka Math² for K-7 grades, lead teachers within the Public Schools of Robeson County shared their experiences with peers and academic coaches in preparation for this academic year during the summer professional development. Teachers were able to connect with educators across the school district to reflect and apply their learning to their work with students as they enhance their skills.
School Performance Grades
Due to the strong results prompted by the success of the EL Education and Eureka Math² curricula, nine PSRC schools achieved a School Performance Grade of C, one school earned a letter grade of B, and one school earned an A. Thirty-five out of 36 schools maintained or increased their school performance grades.
“We are continuing to experience some of the impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Tammy Howard, Senior Director of Accountability and Testing for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. “As we look at the data, the school performance grades, and other information from the 2022-23 school year, it’s very important to note that while it’s informative, it is limited, and it is discouraged to make comparisons to 2018-19, which is prior to the pandemic.”
She said 2018-19 is provided as a reference point only, and not for the purpose of drawing linear comparisons.
School Performance Grade Formula
The A-F school performance grades that schools received for 2021-22 and in 2022-23 were affected by the formula used to determine those grades because student performance on the state tests far outweighs the credit schools earn for the progress students make on the same tests from one year to the next.
Eighty percent of the grade is for the percentage of tests earning a score of at least grade-level proficient; 20% is for growth, measured by a statistical model that compares each student’s predicted test score, based on past performance, against his or her actual result.
Even as most schools across the state achieved at least expected growth, the A-F performance grades of many schools were depressed by lower-than-usual percentages of students earning a score of grade-level proficiency. With the weighting of 80% on the test scores and other achievement data, the school performance grades have shifted downward, consistent with the impact of the pandemic on test scores. For the 2022-23 school year, the percentage of schools with a grade of D or F decreased to 35.4% from 42.3% in 2021-22 but remained higher than the 21.8% in 2018-19.
Looking Ahead
The Public Schools of Robeson County Board of Education will continue to implement the new reading and math curriculum. In addition, all schools will be supported through the Relay work the district has been implementing for the past two years to ensure the development of strong instructional leaders in each building.
“We look forward to continuing our work of school improvement across the district. This improvement will take time and we are already seeing the benefits of our new curricula,” said PSRC Superintendent Dr. Freddie Williamson. “We ask parents and community members to continue to partner with us as we work to move this district forward together.”