By Ann Doss Helms
ahelms@charlotteobserver.com

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools logged gains on all state exams and its graduation rate in 2010, district officials reported Monday.

Pass rates on high school exams rose from 76 to 79 percent in one year - and shot to 85 percent once new retesting was factored in. That's up from 67 percent three years ago, although it's not a perfect comparison since the state changed the subjects tested.

The four-year graduation rate rose from 66 to 70 percent. In 2009, CMS's graduation rate was below the state average; this year's state test scores and graduation rates have not been released.

Wake County Public Schools, which reported results last week, showed smaller gains.

CMS's white students now match Wake's at all grade levels. Its black, Hispanic and low-income students significantly outperform Wake peers. That's a huge switch for a district that, until recently, consistently trailed Wake, especially in high schools.

"Our folks did unbelievable work," especially in a climate of budget cuts and layoffs, Superintendent Peter Gorman said at a news conference.

In elementary and middle schools, 62 percent of all CMS students passed reading exams and 75 percent passed math on the first try, both up over the previous year. With the retesting, pass rates rose to 70 percent for reading and 82 percent for math.

Academic gaps

Gorman said CMS has made "dramatic" progress in helping low-income, black and Hispanic students get closer to performance levels of white and middle-class counterparts. But he acknowledged that those gaps, seen in schools across the country, remain large. Even if current progress continues, it would take four to eight years to reach CMS's goal of no significant differences based on race or family income, he said.

About 90 percent of white students and those who don't get low-income lunch subsidies passed state exams.

Black, Hispanic and low-income students got the biggest bump from getting a second chance to take tests. But they still remain significantly less likely to pass.

For instance, 46 percent of low-income students passed reading on the first try, rising to 56 percent after the retest. That compares with 81 percent on the first try for students who don't get lunch aid, 87 percent after retesting.

Those gaps are reflected in school performance as well. Suburban schools with low poverty levels and white majorities tended to top the test-score list, while high-poverty schools drag the bottom.

Gorman said weak performance will be a factor in deciding which schools close in 2011. But he noted strong signs of progress at several high-poverty schools.

High school gains

High-poverty high schools that earned a judge's "academic genocide" charge five years ago have seen big gains. West Charlotte, West Mecklenburg, Waddell and Garinger, which had more failing scores than passing ones a few years ago, logged pass rates over 70 percent with retesting.

However, West Charlotte, West Meck and Waddell graduated less than 60 percent of the freshmen who entered four years ago. Garinger was split into five small schools, where graduation rates ranged from 62 percent to 91 percent.

Other CMS high schools also saw progress. When Gorman arrived in 2006, he voiced concern that South Mecklenburg High was not doing well enough with kids who arrive relatively well prepared. On Monday, he celebrated steady gains in test performance and graduation rates there.

Plenty to debate

The results leave plenty of room for back-and-forth.

Last year, the state started requiring all elementary and middle-school students who fell just below a passing score to take a different version of the same exam, often just a few days after the first test. This year the same requirement kicked in for high school.

Gorman said he expects some districts to use the high school retesting to claim bigger gains: "That's a false number."

Teasing out the cause of test-score gains can be tricky. Education researcher Diane Ravitch was once an advocate for using test scores to rate schools. Today she reports in her book "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" on cases in which gains attributed to a particular program were echoed or exceeded by other districts not using that approach.

"Higher test scores may or may not be a reliable indicator of better education," writes Ravitch, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Several principals at the CMS news conference credited their gains to recruiting strong teachers and using data to tailor lessons to students' strengths and weaknesses.

Statewide release of 2010 test results is scheduled for Aug. 5. CMS and Wake results often presage statewide trends
 

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