The North Carolina State Board of Education released its second annual report detailing the performance of North Carolina public schools, with CHCCS leading in the evaluations.
“Why are our scores high? Because we have great instructors who are doing a fantastic job,” said Jeff Nash, spokesman for CHCCS.
“It’s been said by our superintendent — and I think he’s right on the money — that he doesn’t want us to be known as the schools with the best test scores in the state, but to be known as the schools with the best instruction.”
While only 72.2 percent of traditional public schools in N.C. received a performance grade of C or better, 100 percent of CHCCS schools received a grade of C or better.
But Nash said the disparity might have something to do with the system of evaluation, and not necessarily the competence of the state’s instructors.
“It’s not an educator thing, it’s a legislator thing — some legislators wanted to grade the schools, so they passed a law about it and educators from all over the state were up in arms about it,” he said.
He said the source of the controversy surrounding the legislated letter grades is the way the system breaks down: grades are based 80 percent on achievement scores and 20 percent on growth.
“Achievement scores are determined in large part by who walks through the door, and so schools that are in higher socioeconomic parts of town are more naturally going to have higher achievement scores,” Nash said.
