Rutherford County Schools Posts Strongest School Performance to Date

For the fifth consecutive year, the State Board of Education earlier today awarded letter grades to each of North Carolina's public schools based upon student proficiency and growth results from the 2017-18 school year. Those results reflect Rutherford County Schools' strongest performance to date.

Across North Carolina, approximately 78% of schools received a School Performance Grade of "C" or better. In Rutherford County Schools, 100% of schools were awarded a School Performance Grade of "C" or better.

"We are pleased that the number of our local schools receiving a School Performance Grade of 'A' or 'B' increased again last year," said superintendent Dr. Janet Mason. "In fact, schools in our district earned those highest possible marks at almost twice the statewide rate. Statewide, a little more than one-third of schools earned grades of 'A' or 'B', while nearly two-thirds of our schools did." Mason also noted that local schools continue to dramatically outperform similar districts across North Carolina.

"We are also pleased that today's reports highlight the strongest student growth results in our school system's history," said assistant superintendent Dr. David Sutton. "Nearly 90% of our local schools either met or exceeded their schoolwide growth targets last year." Cliffside Elementary School, East Rutherford Middle School, Harris Elementary School, and R-S Middle School exceeded annual growth expectations. "That demonstrably high growth rate underscores our commitment to providing rigorous learning experiences and strong support services that allow widespread student success across schools, grade levels, and content areas," Sutton added.

"In the coming days, our team will fully assess all the data provided in today's State Board reports, and those observations will help to inform our continuous improvement efforts as a school system," Mason added. "While they certainly highlight many of our school system's achievements, they will also provide helpful information as we continue to pursue the ambitious improvement goals we have established for our local schools."

Sutton provided a full report of state and local accountability results at the Rutherford County Board of Education business meeting Tuesday, September 11. Additional details about School Performance Grades and statewide accountability results are available on the website of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction at http://www.ncpublicschools.org.