Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is trying to increase the percentage of students scoring at the highest level on the state's Math I exam. But they’ve got a lot of ground to make up, especially among high schoolers, to meet their goals.
The CMS board has a goal to increase the percentage of students scoring at the career- and college-ready level on the state end-of-course Math I exam. That test is generally administered to high schoolers, but also to some middle schoolers who are working above their grade level.
The school system's goal is to increase the percentage of students scoring at the college- and career-ready level from 27% as of June 2023 to 57% by 2029. That would more than double the share of students at that level.
The district sets yearly targets in order to stay on pace to hit the goal. But last year, only 29% of students taking Math I scored at the career-and-college level, short of the district’s annual target of 37%.
This year’s target is 42%, so at this week’s school board meeting, officials discussed how to close that growing gap. Middle school students taking Math I are making more progress — 74% of CMS middle schoolers hit the career-and college-ready level last year, up from 67% the year before.
That means closing the gap between the district's goals and the reality will require focusing on high schoolers. The percentage of career-and-college-ready high school students has held steady at just 9% for the last three years. But Superintendent Crystal Hill said she was confident the district could still hit its target.
“On its face, obviously, we’re like ‘oh my goodness, what are we going to do to meet our goals,’” Hill said. “But this goal is actually quite doable.”
Hill outlined specific numbers the district needs to hit this year to catch up. CMS needs to keep 834 students who are already scoring at the college-and-career-ready level at that level as they move into Math I. The district needs to push 1,040 students who are entering Math I scoring at the lower grade-level proficient level up a few points to college-and-career ready. And the district needs to get 210 students who are not proficient up to college-and-career ready.
Hill said educators know exactly which students need support to do that.
“They are working very closely with these students looking at exactly what they’re doing in the classroom to make sure that they are working on the appropriate task in order to get them to college- and career-ready,” HIll said.
Hill said one challenge has been that middle school students who score college-and-career-college level often move on to ninth grade and struggle to keep their scores at that level.
