NC and CMS Math Test Scores Improve – But Reading Hasn’t Moved

The percentage of students passing math in schools in North Carolina and Charlotte-Mecklenburg continued to rise last year as schools recovered after the coronavirus pandemic disrupted instruction, according to data released Wednesday. But math scores are still far below pre-pandemic levels, and reading scores are harder to change.

Pass rates remain in the 50s statewide for elementary and secondary reading. In CMS, 47% of those students scored on grade level in the 2023-24 school year. That’s about 7 percentage points below the state and district reading pass rates in the 2018-19 school year.

Statewide results show:

• In primary and secondary school mathematics, 54.6% of students achieved results appropriate to their grade, which is an increase of 1.6 percentage points compared to 2023. However, this is still lower than in 2019, when 58.6% passed the tests.
• In primary and secondary school reading, 50.1% of students achieved results appropriate to their grade, down 0.1 percentage points from 2023. In 2019, the pass rate for grades 3–8 was 57%.
• Third-grade reading, considered a key benchmark for success, saw a slight increase. The pass rate in 2024 was 48.6%, up 0.8% from 2023. In 2019, the third-grade pass rate was 56.8%. Last year, third-graders spent at least part of kindergarten learning remotely.
• The eighth grade saw a significant drop in pass rates last year to 70%. This year, they remained roughly the same.
• In secondary school, pass rates for English and maths increased compared to 2023, with 59.5% passing English II and 37% passing Maths I. However, both exams were still more than 4 percentage points lower than in 2019. Maths III also saw an increase compared to 2023, with a pass rate of 58.6%, significantly exceeding 2019 rates.
• In biology, the pass rate dropped to just 53.4%, widening the gap in pass rates in 2019.

CMS results showed:

• In primary and secondary school mathematics, 54.6% of students achieved results appropriate to their grade last year, which is an increase of 1.5 percentage points compared to 2023. However, in 2019, 63.6% of students passed the tests.
• In primary and secondary school reading, 47.5% of students passed the test, which is a 0.2% decrease compared to 2023.

There is reason to be optimistic. The early grades have seen some progress in reading. Early literacy assessments, known as DIBELS, are showing gains, with the largest gains in second grade. Last year, 66.8 percent of second-graders scored at or above the benchmark. The gap between white/Asian and black/Hispanic students has narrowed significantly over the past three years.

Although the third-grade pass rate increased to 47.2%, in 2019 the pass rate was 54.4%.

The English language exam in secondary school level 2 has seen a slight drop to 58.6%. In 2019, the pass rate was 61%.