News

County schools rank 4th in state

By Lightning Reports, Published: September 12, 2016

Henderson County public schools ranked fourth out of 115 public school districts in North Carolina in a measure of how many of its students demonstrated proficiency in grade-level subjects last school year.

The school system’s overall proficiency composite of 70.5 percent in 2015-16 means that 70.5 percent of K-12 students demonstrated proficiency in grade-level subjects. The county school system also ranked third in the state for its 71 percent proficiency composite in all subjects for grades K-8.
The district’s 70.5 percent proficiency composite beat the state average of 58.3 percent by 12.2 percentage points, and its 71 percent proficiency composite for all subjects in grades K-8 was 12.8 percentage points higher than the state average of 58.2 percent.

By individual grade level, 5th grade and 8th grade scores ranked 2nd in the state in all subjects, with a proficiency percentage of 75 percent and 72.6 percent, respectively. The district’s 5th grade proficiency percentage for all subjects was 12.6 percentage points higher than the state average of 62.4, and the 8th Grade percentage was far above the state average of 57.3 percent by 15.3 percentage points.
The district’s Eighth Grade reading scores were also at the top of the charts, ranking 2nd statewide at 69.6 percent – just 1.3 percentage points behind the Chapel-Hill Carrboro Schools, which ranked 1st in the state. Henderson County schools’ math proficiency in Grade 5 ranked 3rd in North Carolina, at 74.8 percent, while science proficiency in Grades 5 and 8 ranked 4th, at 84.6 percent.

“We are so very proud of the hard work and continued excellence demonstrated by our students and our staff,” Superintendent Bo Caldwell said in a statement. “Today, we celebrate the achievement of our students, the commitment of our teachers, and the support of our parents and families.”
Caldwell thanked Dr. Kathy Revis and other central office personnel and the principals and teachers for their work.
“We celebrated,” Caldwell said. “We pat each other in the back and guess what we did the next day? We got four more people (school systems) in front of us.”