CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration (OLR) will talk about the first-of-its-kind report which analyzes the overall impacts of COVID-19 on public schools, students and families.
Districts in the Charlotte area, including Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, already know how bad the pandemic has hurt their students. Last year, CMS saw a big dip in numbers including graduation rates. In 2015, graduation rates were around 88% and by last fall had dipped to just over 83%.
CMS said the numbers were expected, but last September, Superintendent Ernest Winston said the drop in students' grades and preparedness for college was unacceptable.
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“Challenges existed before the pandemic, but they have worsened during these atypical times,” Winston said.
The district showed huge drops across the board in every subject, every grade level, and every racial group. At the time CMS said it knew it had a big hole to dig out of – but vowed to do so.
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Thursday, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction will talk about a study it conducted to dig deeper into the effects of the pandemic on schools in the state. Mainly looking at the loss of instruction time for students during the 2020-2021 school year.
The analysis is the first of its kind in the state and one of the first statewide studies conducted nationally, which analyzes the overall impacts of COVID-19 on public school units, students and families.
Locally, the district said it knows the pandemic hurt CMS but said at the time it’s already taken steps to it hopes will help get students back on track. But acknowledged that will be a long process.
The details of the report are expected to be released on March 2 and will include a path forward for school boards to take to help reduce the education loss gap they've experienced.
Contact Richard DeVayne at rdevayne@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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