“This shows tremendous growth in student achievement,” said Elease Frederick, superintendent. “We are not where we want to be, of course, but our students are making excellent progress and will be college and career ready.”

Frederick praised the teachers, administrators, and staff members of the district for hard work, dedication, and a “spirit of excellence” that helped students learn, grow, and achieve.

“We have all been working very well together to better serve our students,” Frederick said. “Working together works and we are seeing good results. Our students are more engaged and ready to excel. We have high expectations for our students and they are answering with high expectations of their own.” This is the second year of the Common Core standard for measuring student achievement.

It raises standards by requiring students to not only know the curriculum, but understand and use it to solve problems.

Tyrana Battle, HCS assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, cautions that this is just a snapshot of where students were when they took the test.

Growth is a better indicator of the progress students made during the school year. “I am pleased that the performance composites at all schools have increased,” said Battle. “Our major focus is to ensure that every student gets more than a year’s worth of growth for a year of instruction.”

The measure for growth is called AMO (annual measurable objectives). This originated with the No Child Left Behind Act signed into law by President George W. Bush more than a decade ago.

Schools are measured on whether students meet expected growth standards across every classification of student – such as overall student body, male or female and other factors.

Four Halifax County Schools exceeded growth expectations; meaning students grew by more than one grade level. Those four schools are Pittman Elementary, William R. Davie Middle, Northwest Halifax High and Southeast Halifax High.

Four other schools met expectations – Aurelian Springs Elementary, Dawson Elementary, Enfield Middle, and Inborden Elementary.

Two schools did not meet expectation – Everetts and Hollister elementary schools.

The state also released graduation rates on Thursday. Halifax County Schools’ graduation rate came in at 74.6 percent. The district’s graduation rate has remained at about 75 percent for the past three years. Report cards will not be issued by the state until February, but those interested in seeing the data for district schools, and every school in the state, can visit this link.