Principals across ENC react to improved school performance ratings

EAST CAROLINA, N.C. (WITN) – With the new school year in full swing, performance grades for the 2023-2024 school year have been released for school districts across the state, and many have seen improvements.

Numbers and grades released on Wednesday North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

Pitt County Schools is one of the districts that showed high achievement. Of the 36 schools evaluated, two received A grades; six received B grades; 13 received C grades; and 15 received D grades. No school received an F grade.

With four-year graduation rate growth and the elimination of seven low-performing school status labels, 83 percent of schools met or exceeded growth expectations.

“We continue to grow in English/language arts. We are also seeing tremendous growth in our math scores. Our science scores are also at an all-time high,” Pitt County Schools Interim Superintendent Steve Lassiter said.

Lassiter says they hope to incorporate AI into classroom instruction so that teachers and students use it responsibly, which will hopefully help boost their scores even further this school year.

Tyrrell County Schools also saw some improvements. Two of the three schools exceeded growth expectations, and Columbia Middle School was removed from the low-performing school list, according to Principal Dr. Karen Roseboro.

“We focused on what areas we needed to improve in last school year and put all our effort into that,” Roseboro said.

This success, he says, is thanks to teachers and parents working together to achieve what is best for their children. “Families are our partners in this effort, and when we talked to our parents about what we hoped to achieve in our schools, they were there for us.”

To commemorate the milestone, Roseboro says Tyrrell County Schools will hold a blue party celebrating academic achievement. Columbia Middle School and Columbia Early College High School will be the focus of this year’s event.