Early colleges rank high in North Carolina education report card
October 7, 2013 - Early college high schools partnering with NC New Schools dominated the list of high performing schools in a new report on the state of public education in North Carolina.
CarolinaCAN: The North Carolina Campaign for Achievement Now released its inaugural 'State of North Carolina Public Education' report on its website. The online database assigns letter grades in categories of student achievement for North Carolina's public schools and school districts, looking at performance in reading and math among black, Latino, low-income and all students. Schools are also graded based on achievement gaps and graduation rates.
In the accompanying "Top 10" report, CarolinaCAN ranked North Carolina's top public high schools according to best student performance by subgroup. Schools that are partners with NC New Schools represented nine of the 10 top schools on the low-income student performance list, 12 of 14 on the list for high performance among black students, and all 10 of the schools recognized for high performance among Latino students. On all three lists, the partner schools posted passing rates of nearly 95 percent or higher.
Schools on one or more of the three "Top 10" lists include:
- Anson County Early College High School
- Bertie STEM High School
- Challenger Early College High School
- Cleveland County Early College High School
- Cross Creek Early College
- Duplin Early College High School
- Early College of Forsyth
- Granville Early College High School
- Greene Early College High School
- Haywood Early College
- Henderson County Early College High School
- Howard Health and Life Science High School (partner until 2013)
- JD Clement Early College High School
- Lee Early College High School
- Middle College at GTCC-Greensboro
- Randolph Early College High School
- Scotland Early College High School
- Stanly Early College High School
- Vance Early College High School
- Wake Early College of Health and Sciences
- Warren Early College High School
- Wilmington Early College High School
- Wilson Early College Academy
- Yadkin Early College High School
Key findings in the main report include:
- Only 60 percent of North Carolina's low-income fourth-graders are meeting standards in reading. By the time they reach eighth grade, low-income students fall a full 26 percentage points behind their higher-income peers.
- North Carolina ranks 45th in the nation in our spending on public schools, at just $8,312 per pupil, compared to the national average of $10,560.
- Between 2008 and 2012, North Carolina's ranking among states for providing access to high-quality preschool programs fell from 16 to 23.
Visit the CarolinaCAN website to access the complete report card and the Top 10 report.
