In 2024, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools set a goal to increase the percentage of students on track to be enrolled in higher education, enlisted in the military or employed upon graduation.
The latest estimates show the district is on track to meet its goals and might do so earlier than planned.
While the latest data is still unofficial and could change before the end of the year, CMS says it’s projecting 85% of graduating students will meet the criteria for the '25-'26 school year. If that holds, the district will have hit the goal number three years ahead of schedule.
The goal aims to increase the percentage of students deemed on track to be enrolled, enlisted or employed from 72% as of June 2023 to 85% by June 2029. To be deemed “on track,” students must meet at least one of several “indicators,” which include things like hitting certain ACT or SAT scores, completing a career-and-technical education pathway or earning college credits while in high school.
Superintendent Crystal Hill said that prior to the goal, there wasn’t a system-wide approach to getting kids to look beyond graduation.
“Pretty much it’s ‘let’s make sure that we check the boxes you need for English courses. You need this.’ You’re just taking classes, but the goal is just to graduate. It’s not necessarily the goal of ‘what you’re going to do after graduation?’”
Now, teachers track student progress to see what kind of coursework they’re pursuing and how the district can help them hit those indicators.
CMS has had more success with this goal than its other three, which deal with literacy and math achievement. Literacy scores have steadily increased, but the district has said it needs to increase those scores at faster rates to keep pace with the goal. Math scores have been more stubborn.
This goal also doesn’t have any bearing on graduation rates – it only measures students who are graduating. Last school year, CMS posted an 84.3% graduation rate, which was slightly down from the year before and below the statewide rate of 87.7%.
At this week’s school board meeting, CMS board member Anna London, who is the CEO of the city’s workforce development board, Charlotte Works, praised the “three E” initiative and said that it had been a community-wide effort.
“I think it shows that placing intentionality on this has shown immediate progress,” London said. “The entire community has really aligned around the three Es, which I love to see that as well.”
Board chair Stephanie Sneed highlighted that there’s still work to be done in closing gaps between student groups. While Black, Hispanic and multiple-language students have seen some of the biggest gains in this area, they still lag behind their white and Asian peers – largely because they were starting from behind.
“It is great that the numbers are up, but it’s got to be that many times up to close that gap,” Sneed said. “I think there is a unique opportunity in this particular category to make sure that … there is some fidelity in correcting where those gaps are.”
