- DPI data show college-and-career readiness declines from about 40% in 3rd grade to 30% by 8th grade, with only a third of 11th graders meeting the benchmark on the ACT—a trend some say is not reassuring even accounting for COVID-era recovery.
State education officials presented upbeat math scores to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee on Thursday, but Republican lawmakers challenged whether the numbers tell a different story and asked whether students have the materials they need to improve.
At the meeting, officials from the NC Department of Public Instruction reported consistent improvements in grade-level proficiency and college-and-career readiness from 3rd through 8th grade over the past three school years.
That stands alongside the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) gains for both 4th and 8th graders between 2022 and 2024. The percentage of 4th graders scoring at or above proficient on the NAEP scores rose from 35% in 2022 to 41% in 2024, while 8th grade proficiency climbed from 25% to 31% over the same period.
“We are not where we want to be, but progress is happening,” said Dr. Kristi Day, director of the Office of Teaching and Learning at DPI.
The presentation was an update on the state’s ongoing K-12 math standards revision with a second public draft of the new standards expected in mid-April.
But committee members were quick to reframe those numbers.
Rep. Hugh Blackwell, R-Burke, pointed to DPI’s own slide showing that college-and-career readiness declines as students move through the system — from roughly 40% of 3rd graders performing at that level to around 30% by 8th grade.
“That doesn’t seem to me positive,” Blackwell said.
He also noted that the data begins in 2022-23, the height of the COVID recovery period.
“The fact that we’re growing maybe from the COVID period is not exactly reassuring to me,” Blackwell said.
He also pressed DPI officials on the ACT results, noting that roughly a third of NC 11th graders score at the college-and-career-ready level on that exam.
Rep. Brian Biggs, R-Randolph, offered a blunter read on the data. “It’s kind of disconcerting to see those numbers continue to go down … the kids are not failing. We failed the kids when we kept them out of school. And I said that in 2020 when I was on the school board.”
Rep. David Willis, R-Union, focused on a different problem: what students are actually being handed in class.
“Obviously, when the state moved away from textbooks in the 2013-ish timeframe, we lost a lot of our high-quality materials,” Willis said. “Whether you’re in Murphy or Manteo, what that teacher puts in front of those students should be the same high-quality level across the board.”
“I think we need to take a very hard look at returning to textbooks in K-5,” he added.
DPI acknowledged the concern, saying the agency is revisiting its instructional materials review process. Officials also conceded the state lacks a math diagnostic screener equivalent to what exists for reading.
“What we would really love to see for mathematics across the state is a screener like we have for literacy, so that teachers can very quickly pinpoint exactly where those gaps are,” said Day. “They have that for literacy, but we do not have that for foundational mathematics.”
The revised standards under consideration would reduce the number of required high school math courses from three to two while preserving the four-credit graduation requirement, giving students more flexibility in their third and fourth credits.
DPI plans to bring a final draft before the State Board of Education this summer, with full implementation in K-12 classrooms set for 2028-29.