News

County schools inch up one notch on state report card

By Amy McCraw, Published: September 10, 2024

A state report card on Henderson County’s public schools shows that the school system improved slightly last year.

The accountability report presented  the School Board Monday during its regular monthly meeting noted that the county’s schools inched up from a rank of 31st in the state during the 2022-2023 school year 30th during the 2023-2024 school year — a performance that placed the county behind several peers in the area and well behind Top 10 rankings it has achieved in the recent past.
“We managed to gain one bump up,” Assistant Superintendent Shannon Marlowe told the board. “We’re headed in the right direction. We’re just not headed there as quickly as some of us would like it.”
Henderson County schools ranked lower than other nearby systems in Western North Carolina for the 2023-2024 school year.
Transylvania County Schools ranked 25th in the state while Asheville City Schools came in 23rd. Polk County ranked eighth and ranked Haywood County ranked sixth in the state.
The report card showed that just one school in the county received an A grade in 2023-24 while eight received a B grade. The remaining schools included seven C grades and six D grades.
The county’s Early College received the school system’s only A. Schools that received Bs included Hendersonville High, North Henderson, West Henderson, Atkinson Elementary, Hendersonville Elementary, Glenn C. Marlow Elementary, Mills River Elementary and Rugby Middle.
Schools that receive Cs included Hendersonville Middle, Bruce Drysdale Elementary, Clear Creek Elementary, Etowah Elementary, Fletcher Elementary, Sugarloaf Elementary and East Henderson.
Schools that received Ds included Dana Elementary, Edneyville Elementary, Hillandale Elementary, Upward Elementary, Apple Valley Middle and Flat Rock Middle.
The county’s Career Academy moved from a grade of progressing to a grade of maintaining.
The grades are calculated based on a formula that measures student proficiency and the school’s growth.
Of the county’s 23 schools, 17 met or exceeded growth targets in 2023-2024.
“We also had 17 out of 23 last year but it was a different 17 out of 23,” Marlowe said.
The school system’s graduation rate moved up from 90.3 percent in the 2022-2023 school year to the 92.8 percent in the 2023-2024 school year.
Marlowe said she intended to again address the accountability report at next month’s school board meeting with more information about schools that were designated targeted school improvement schools and those that were designated as low performing schools.
“The one thing we have not had a chance to dig into really deeply yet is the designations that come up every year,” she said.
The School Board is scheduled to meet again on Oct. 15 at 4 p.m. at the school system’s central office on Fourth Avenue West.