Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools set a new goal last fall to increase the number of students graduating on track to enroll in higher education, enlist in the military, or be employed. Finalized data from last year shows the district made progress toward that goal.
Around 76% of students who graduated in the 2023-24 school year met at least one of seven different indicators that the district says put them on track to enroll in higher education, enlist in the military, or be employed.
Those indicators include meeting grade-level proficiency in specific subjects, meeting certain ACT or SAT benchmarks, or graduating with college credits.
It means the district exceeded its 74% goal for last school year and is inching toward reaching a goal of 85% by 2029.
There are challenges, however. For instance, Superintendent Crystal Hill told the school board last night that the district is dealing with shortages in counselors and other student support staff, who are allotted by the state.
"Our current ratio for our counselors is 1 to 300, which is not good," she told the board. "It’s a lot. Our student support staff — our counselors, psychologists, all of those folks — have a ratio that is way out of whack.”
Hill says the district compensates for those shortages. CMS has a partnership with Central Piedmont Community College that connects students with career and college coaches.
One area where CMS students saw only slight growth was in ACT and SAT scores — around 40% of students met the score benchmarks, just shy of the district’s goal of 43%.
But the percentage of students who met grade-level proficiency in Math I or Math III, English II and biology, or who successfully completed a vocational course, increased by 10 percentage points, meeting the goal of 42%.
And 44% earned higher education credit, surpassing the goal of 40%.
