State's school test performance falls

RALEIGH -- The academic performance of North Carolina's public schools plummeted in the 2007-08 year, with more difficult reading exams dragging down scores in elementary and middle schools.

School officials said today that 47 percent of elementary and middle school students failed to pass both their reading and math exams; the failure rate was under 40 percent in the prior year.

In a third of all state schools, including high schools, more than 40 percent of students failed state exams, according to the results which stem from the ABCs of Public Education testing and accountability program. That was twice the number of schools with such lackadaisical performance last year.

The number of schools earning the state's top accolades for the most students passing state exams fell by more than half.

Only 10 percent of schools had at least 80 percent of students passing state exams and meeting academic growth requirements. In the 2006-07 academic year, 23 percent of schools met that standard.

State and local education officials are downplaying the significance of the change, attributing it to the new reading exams in elementary and middle schools. Some drop in performance is normal in the year that new exams are introduced, school officials say.

The reading exams were more challenging in 2007-08 to help students prepare to excel in the future, school officials said. The results were dramatic. For instance, 57 percent of fifth-graders passed the reading exams in 2007-08, compared with 92 percent the previous year.

The new exams also reduced the number of schools meeting the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind program, which focuses on the percentage of students who pass state reading and math exams at each school. The program aims to close the achievement gap among various groups of students.

Only 31 percent of schools met the standards of the federal No Child Left Behind program this past school year, down from 45 percent the previous year.

The results are a starting point from which to measure improvements, said June Atkinson, state superintendent of public instruction.

"We have challenges ahead," she said.

State officials issued statements focusing on the stiffer standards rather than the tanking scores. Gov. Mike Easley, in a prepared statement, said raising standards is part of making improvements. Students were approaching 90 percent passing rates under the old standards. That was the was a signal to make changes, Easley said.

"Education is about constantly changing the curriculum to improve the knowledge of the student," he said. "It is about change: expecting more, demanding more and raising expectations in education. That is the hallmark of North Carolina's education strategy."

In a joint statement, UNC President Erskine Bowles and state Community Colleges President Scott Ralls commended the board for raising standards, which they said would lead to more success for students who go on to higher education. "North Carolina competes in a knowledge-based global economy, and the expectations set by our state's education systems must reflect the increased knowledge and skills required to be successful in today's workforce," they wrote.

Triangle school districts mirrored the statewide decline.

In Wake County, 18 percent of schools met the standards of No Child Left Behind, compared with 40 percent the previous year.

The number of Wake schools with least 80 percent of students passing state exams and meeting growth goals dropped from 69 to 30. In most Wake schools, between 60 and 80 percent of students passed state exams and met growth goals.

Two schools in Wake County were labeled as low performing because fewer than half their students passed state exams and didn't meet growth goals. They were among 101 schools statewide that were labeled as low-performing, the most since 1997.

The Durham school system had nine low-performing schools, compared with two the previous year.

In a majority of Durham schools, 50 percent or fewer students passed state exams.

By contrast, all of the traditional schools in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system, considered among the best in the state, had passing rates over 70 percent. But no school in the district earned an Honor School of Excellence award, which goes to schools where 90 percent of students pass state exams and exceed growth goals.

Wake County, the state's largest district, had four of North Carolina's 29 Honor Schools of Excellence. The prior year, there were 84 such schools statewide.

Go to abcs.ncpublicschools.org/abcs/ for school-by-school results.