North Carolina students continue to make gains on most measures of student learning, according to school accountability data released last week to the State Board of Education. More than 75 percent of public schools overall earned grades of C or better in the third year of the state’s A-F grading system.

Nearly a third (32.7 percent) of the state’s 2,459 traditional public and charter schools achieved As and Bs – including the A+NG designation for schools that earn an A and do not have significant achievement and/or graduation gaps – up from the 29.4 percent that did so in 2013-14, the first year that schools were assigned letter grades. The proportion of schools receiving Ds and Fs fell last year to less than a quarter (23.2 percent) of all schools – a decline of nearly 20 percent among schools with the lowest grades over the last three years, from 707 to 571.

The state’s four-year high school cohort graduation rate, which is included in the letter grades for high schools, continued to improve and reached a new high of 85.8 percent with the class of 2016. The five-year cohort graduation rate also reached a new high of 87.5 percent. On state exams, the percentage of students proficient in math and science improved across all grades in elementary, middle and high school; reading and high school English performance was more mixed.

Visit the NCDPI Accountability Services website for more detailed information on these releases. The press releases on the accountability results and cohort graduation rates are available on the NCDPI home page under News.

NCDPI staff are drafting an accountability model for North Carolina public schools as required by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Under ESSA, states are to design an accountability system comprised of evidence-based indicators that will have a positive impact on student achievement.

To assist with this process, State Superintendent June Atkinson has asked each local school district and charter school to establish an ESSA team to provide feedback on specific indicators for State Board consideration. The indicators are Academic Achievement, School Quality and Student Success, and other suggestions. Indicators must be valid, statewide, disaggregated by student groups, and show meaningful distribution for schools statewide.

NCDPI staff plan to submit the Department’s final accountability model to the US Department of Education by early March.

Until three years ago, many parents lacked easy access to real-time information about their children’s grades in school and attendance. Now, with a new school year underway, technology leaders with the NC Department of Public Instruction expect more parents will be logging in to the online PowerSchool application as a key source to help keep abreast of their children’s education.

“By using PowerSchool’s parent portal, we can connect parents to key data about their students’ schoolwork. This frees parents and teachers to spend their conference time discussing strategies to help students improve,” said State Superintendent June Atkinson.

It’s catching on. In a single week this spring, more than 450,000 parents and students accessed the secure parent and student portals in PowerSchool, giving districts yet another approach to help strengthen parent engagement, a critical factor for student achievement.

PowerSchool, the state’s student information system, is at the heart of Home Base, a suite of digital classroom tools and instructional resources launched in 2013 to serve not only teachers and administrators, but also students and parents. Under the previous student information system, only 20 of North Carolina’s 115 public school districts provided parents with an online “portal” to view the latest information about grades and attendance for their children. Now, all districts are using the PowerSchool parent portal with at least some of their students.

State Board of Education member Tricia Willoughby recently received the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) 2016 Distinguished Service Award.

The award recognizes the leadership and commitment of members of state boards of education nationwide. Willoughby was named for her 16 years of service on the North Carolina board, on which she has held numerous leadership roles. Willoughby served as North Carolina’s first woman state superintendent of public instruction in an interim role in 2004.  She was executive director of the NC Business Committee for Education, a classroom teacher, and a faculty member at Meredith College, where she directed the elementary education program and taught courses to pre-service teachers.

She will be presented the award this October at NASBE’s national conference in Kansas City, Mo.

Students of military families interested in learning more about government, politics and North Carolina are invited to apply to be a Governor’s Page Oct. 10-14. This special week has been set aside for military family students who will have the opportunity to meet NC Department of Military and Veterans Affairs Secretary Cornell Wilson, tour the State Capitol and Governor’s Mansion, and meet with other key government officials.

Interested students may apply online. Applications should be submitted by Monday, Sept. 26. Questions may be directed to the Page Coordinator at (919) 814-2017 or govpage@nc.gov.