New state data shows several Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools made major academic strides despite an extremely difficult past year.
A financial crisis led to hundreds of educators losing jobs, leaving the remaining staff to do more with a lot less.
But as WS/FCS officials noted at a press conference this week, that devastation wasn’t reflected in end-of-course exams.
The district saw its highest score for third-grade reading in 10 years. Six schools came off the state’s low-performing list, and many raised their letter grade.
Walkertown Middle had the district’s highest growth and was in the top 1% of all schools in the state.
“Our staff dug in. And our students rose to the occasion. Our community wrapped around us and they never pulled back," said Principal Monica Comer. "And because of that tenacity, we did not just survive this year; we grew double-digit growth. I mean, that is huge."
In the district as a whole, 52% of students were considered grade-level proficient — about seven points lower than the state rate.
But officials emphasized that the data reflects one-time test scores, which are not the only measure of student success.