2007-08 Adopted Plan - Wake County Public School System

Student AchievementSTUDENT ACHIEVEMENT INWAKE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS (WCPSS)Student achievement in the Wake County Public School System hasbeen improving for the last several years. As required by state law andpolicy, students in WCPSS in grades three through eight are tested annuallyin reading and mathematics. The chart below (Figure 1) showsthe achievement in reading for students in Grades 3-5 from Spring 2000to Spring 2006. Over this period, there has been a steady increasein the percent of students in each grade level demonstrating on-gradeperformance in reading. While there has been some year to year variation,with slight increases or losses, the overall trend for these gradeshas been up. Moreover, by tracking along the diagonal of the data table,it may be observed that cohorts of students post gains for each grade.That is, there was a larger percentage of students in Grade 4 in 2001reading at or above grade level than was true for the same cohort, whenthey were in Grade 3 in 2000.Exactly the same trends in reading for students in Grades 6-8 arepresented in Figure 2. It is interesting to note that there is a drop in thepercentage of students reading at or above grade level in Grade 6, ascompared to the same cohort of students when they were in Grade 5.However, by the end of Grade 8, this drop has been largely made up.95.0%90.0%85.0%80.0%75.0%Figure 2:EOG Reading Trends by Grade Level,Spring 2000-2006, Grades 6-8100.0%95.0%90.0%Figure 1:EOG Reading Trends by Grade Level,Spring 2000-2006, Grades 3-570.0%6th Grade 7th Grade 8th Grade2000 77.8% 84.4% 88.7%2001 80.7% 85.1% 90.6%2002 82.8% 86.7% 91.4%2003 87.7% 90.3% 92.2%2004 87.1% 90.2% 91.6%2005 87.9% 90.4% 92.0%2006 88.9% 91.6% 92.0%85.0%80.0%75.0%3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade2000 83.1% 81.6% 87.7%2001 85.3% 85.9% 90.8%2002 87.6% 87.4% 92.3%2003 89.0% 90.0% 93.5%2004 88.1% 89.5% 93.5%2005 88.5% 88.6% 94.3%2006 89.5% 90.9% 93.3%In 2005-06, the State Board of Education reset the passing levels formathematics tests in Grades 3-8. Whereas in prior years, the percentageof WCPSS students scoring at or above grade level in mathematics wassimilar to the outcomes seen for reading, in 2005-06, the percentageof students passing the mathematics tests fell substantially. As Figure3 shows, the percentage of students by grade level passing themathematics tests was lower than percentages passing reading tests.358