News

Performance rises modestly in K-12 schools

By Bill Moss, Published: September 19, 2025

Henderson County schools have rebounded modestly from their performance on standardized test scores two years ago that left the school system in the middle of the pack statewide.

Once a top 5 district in the state, the county school system is striving to reach that level again.

“I know our strategic plan goal is to get to the top 5,” Shannon Marlow, assistant superintendent for instructional services, told the school board last week as she presented the 2024-25 test results. “We’ve got a little ways to go. But two years ago, we were 31, last year was 30. We have moved up (this year) to 26 out of 115 school districts. So the work is being shown there.”

Among the 18 western region districts, Henderson County ranked fifth. Five of 23 schools exceeded state-mandated growth levels and 12 met growth.

“You might see some negatives on there, but that means that they were still within that range that shows that they met growth,” Dr. Marlow said. “I keep having to remind myself that they missed some days last year they didn't get to make up. We didn't want to use that as any kind of excuse, to the point that I forgot that it happened. So hats off to them for working so hard.”

Apple Valley Middle School “has now exceeded growth and moved off of the low-performing list from a D to a C,” Marlow said. “And that is not just a one-year blip. That has been a steady march forward.

“The same can be said for East Henderson High School,” she added. “They have been a C, and their school grade has been steadily marching forward. They were at a 69 last year, which is right on the cusp, and they have now crossed over to a B.”

North Henderson High School had test-score growth of 9.4 percent —three times the percentage of the four other exceeds-growth schools.

“That is the No. 1 high school in the region, and one of the top schools in the state for growth,” Superintendent Mark Garrett said.

‘We should not have an F school’

Challenges remain, however.

In addition to one A school — the Early College on the BRCC campus — nine B schools and six C, five schools scored a D and one, Dana Elementary, got an F.

“I'm just going to say it out loud: We should not have an F school,” Garrett said. “We just shouldn't, and that is something that we have to own, and something that we have to dig in and work on.

“And yes, they do have some higher poverty in those schools, and they do have some different challenges. But that doesn't change the fact that we need to get those scores to reflect what we see goes on in that building every day, which is amazing teaching and learning and taking care of kids. We want the outside number to match what we know is going on on the inside.”

The high number of English-language learners at Dana and some other lower performing schools adds to the challenge.

“I just want to point out that our D and F schools there — those are heavily populated with ESL kids, and they have a huge learning curve coming into school, trying to learn our language and then testing,” Marlow said. “It's not that those kids aren't growing. Those kids are growing, just not at that proficiency level. They've got to focus on language acquisition first and foremost.”

All four traditional high schools scored Bs in testing and performed even better in the number of young adults leaving with a diploma.

“The average (graduate rate) for Henderson County schools was 93.6 percent, which is a record for us,” Marlow said. “That puts us ninth in the state out of 115 districts for graduation rate.”

The school board next month will receive a report from administrators on school improvement plans aimed at lifting the test scores across the district.