CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools continues to reveal more student progress reports showing students off-track academically.
CMS is tracking the number of high school students enrolled and passing advanced-level courses. The district wants to increase the percentage of students taking and passing these classes from 47% -- which the district saw in 2017 -- to 75% by 2024.
The classes tracked include Advanced Placement (AP) courses, International Baccalaureate (IB) courses, Dual Enrollment courses, and Cambridge courses.
The last time the report was released in January the district said as of December 2021, 57% of students were taking and passing the advanced courses. Now that number sits at 61.5%
According to CMS, they’ll start next school year only slightly off track from where they’d like to be.
The April report notedly includes students in 300 and 400-level Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses. This addition of courses impacts an apple-to-apple view of the progress report from January to April.
"To prepare students to do well in AP IB, it starts in middle school," Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh said. "You have to prepare them, they're taking rigorous courses, so that they're ready to move to AP and be successful, not be concerned about the challenges in that coursework.”
CMS is 3.5 percentage points away from its end of year goal of 65% of students taking and passing college-level courses.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Black and Hispanic students at CMS offer insight on how to improve scores in advanced courses
The district said in a report a number of reasons contributed to the end-of-year increase to the goal.
"Led by the Advanced Studies Department and the Office of Equity, after-school sessions were offered to students enrolled in selected AP, Cambridge, and IB courses," the report said. "The courses were selected based on a review of various data elements. Availability of teachers and student interest were one of the factors considered in course selection."
Review sessions were held for four months in person and virtually. Students could pick review sessions in which they needed specialized help and support.
"Table One shows that Asian and white students have met their 2022 targets, while Black and Hispanic students lag significantly in meeting their targets," Carol Sawyer, a CMS Board Member, said. "But when it comes to Hispanic and Black students, CMS continues to fall short.”
While Hispanic and Black students are falling short, they are making greater improvements than their white counterparts.
In the past four months, Black students saw a 9.8 percentage point increase in taking and passing the courses. Hispanic students saw a 9.2. White students had an increase of 4.9.
Despite these gains, both Black and Hispanic students have the lowest amount of people taking and passing advanced courses. The district is looking to change that.
“A second strategy we find works well, particularly with students who have been historically underserved, is to be able to identify adults in a school who are trusted adults, students, adults who the students say I trust that student, in fact, and we leverage those trusted adults, to push students into those courses," Frank Barnes, the CMS Chief Accountability Officer, said.
Despite not reaching its target goals this CMS progress report is the most encouraging. That's compared to reading and math scores that are significantly lower than the target goals the district has set out.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.