Student test scores released Wednesday remained stagnant for Hispanic students and English-language learners in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, but these groups saw increased graduation rates.
Test scores for these students largely remained the same from data released one year ago, after a sharp drop during the coronavirus pandemic. However, test scores for Hispanics and English-language learners have improved since the pandemic.
- 38.2% of Hispanic students and 23.9% of English learners earned grade-level scores last year. That was largely the same as in 2023. In 2024, 52.7% of all students earned grade-level scores.
- During the pandemic, 30.4% of Hispanic students and 13.5% of English learners earned grade-level scores.
- In 2019, before the pandemic, 49% of Hispanic students and 29.6% of English learners tested at grade level.
However, the graduation rate was up significantly for both groups. Hispanic students jumped to 75.2% and English learners to 65%.
CMS Deputy Superintendent Melissa Balknight attributes the improvement in graduation rates partly to ensuring school social workers communicate directly with families.
CMS Board member Liz Monterrey says the new graduation rates are encouraging, but is looking for ways to boost learning.
“We are slowly but surely closing that achievement gap," Monterrey said. "I will be honest, there's a lot of work to do. We are still very behind in every demographic."
CMS Superintendent Crystal Hill says the district has worked on different strategies to assist English-language learners.
“We’ve done a lot of investment in summer programs specifically for multilingual learners that may not have earned a credit during the school year, so they can recover it over the summer,” Hill said.
Monterrey says plans are in motion to bring more multilingual support for English-language learners to all schools in the district.
