<p>Truitt</p>

Truitt

<p>Davis</p>

Davis

<p>Burnette</p>

Burnette

LUMBERTON — Students across the state scored poorly on tests in the 2020-21 school year after a year of educational disruptions and challenges caused by COVID-19, according to state officials.

The United States Department of Education and North Carolina General Assembly waived requirements of school performance grades for the school year because of impacts to education concerning COVID-19.

The state did not give individual schools an A-to-F performance grade that’s based largely on state exam performance for the past year. A law signed by Gov. Roy Cooper temporarily waves the requirement.

Only 45.4% of K-12 students passed the exams for the 2020-21 school year, according to results released at a State Board of Education meeting on Wednesday. Two years ago — the last time testing was required — nearly 59% of K-12 students passed state exams. The U.S. Education Department did not require states to test students in the 2019-20 school year but required it this past year to assess pandemic learning loss.

Test subjects included math and reading for students in grades 3 to 8; science for grades 3, 5 and 8; and math, biology and English for high school students.

“These results show the resilience of our students and dedication of our teachers and others to persevere despite many disruptions to learning,” said Eric Davis, chairman of the State Board of Education.

“The scores should not be interpreted to indicate deficiencies in student learning or our teachers’ abilities to teach. These scores are one of many tools we will use to continue to develop instructional plans to meet the academic needs of each and every student,” Davis said.

The University of North Carolina system requires a score of 17 on the ACT, for its minimum admission requirement. The state saw a slight decrease from 55.8% in 2018-19 to 55.2% in 2020-21 in the percentage of students who achieved the score, according to NCDPI.

“We know the 2020-21 school year was incredibly challenging for students, families and educators,” said Catherine Truitt, State superintendent of Public Instruction.

“We need to remember these results are only a snapshot of a year marked by extreme anomalies and extenuating circumstances. To treat these scores as though they are valid indicators of future success or performance would not only be an improper use of these data, but also would be a disservice to our students, teachers, and administrators,” she added.

Schools identified as low-performing from data collected in the 2018-19 school year remained on the 2019-20 list in accordance to North Carolina General Assembly Session Law 2021–130, or Senate Bill 654.

“No schools were newly designated as low performing based on 2020-21 data,” said Blair Rhoades, Communications director of the Communications and Information Division at NCDPI.

Fairmont Middle School, Lumberton Junior High School, Orrum Middle School and Townsend Middle School were reported as failing, according to the data released this week by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

Twenty-two schools in the Robeson County school district remained on the low-performing schools list. Some schools that merged during school consolidation were listed individually, as they were in the 2018-19 school year.

The school district has taken steps to improve performance, according to Gordon Burnette, PSRC’s chief communications officer.

“The district has implemented several resources to aid Fairmont Middle School, Lumberton Junior High School, Orrum Middle School, and Townsend Middle School in an effort to improve school performance. All schools throughout the district will now have a full-time assistant principal, which is something new for the 2021-2022 school year,” Burnette said.

“These schools now have full-time academic coaches on campus and a district support staff member assigned to them,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.