Feb. 12, 2020 — Guilford County Schools is at the halfway point of its Strategic Plan 2022, which was unveiled in March 2018. At its retreat on Saturday, the school board reviewed amendments to some of the goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) to reflect changes in state policy and to better address specific student outcomes.

A few changes from the Feb. 8, 2020 board retreat were approved at the Feb. 11, 2020 regular meeting.

The Strategic Plan changes are as follows:

• Revised Goal I: By 2022, the percentage of students who will read proficiently by the end of third grade will increase to 54 percent (an average annual increase of 0.65 percentage points; baseline of 51.4 percent in 2017-18).
  • Research shows that reading growth is trending negatively across the 12 largest districts in North Carolina. This goal was adjusted to create a target based on an average reading increase in similar districts.
  • Key performance indicators were also revised to reflect a focus on specific ethnic groups. Last year, the state changed the assessment it uses to measure reading proficiency, so references to previous assessments were removed from the KPIs.
• Goal II (no change): 75 percent of incoming sixth grade students will pass NC Math I (Algebra I) with a C or better by the end of their ninth grade year in 2022.
  • Math assessments have changed at the state level. KPIs were revised to reflect this and to better focus on key demographics.
• Goal III (no change): The percentage of graduating seniors who complete a rigorous career pathway will increase to 35 percent, by 2022.
  • KPIs were adjusted to include more grade levels and to be more reflective of the student population.
• Revised Goal IV: Of the 25 lowest performing schools, increase the number that meet or exceed growth from 16 to 22.
  • The previous goal was to increase by 50 percent the number of schools that exceed growth. The KPIs were revised to reflect the focus on the lowest performing schools, which is essential in improving overall district progress.
  • The removal of biology and the inclusion of Math 3 in growth calculations changes how growth was measured from 2017-18 to 2018-19, making comparisons more difficult. A KPI related to science growth is now included as science is included in the school growth model for the state.
• Revised Goal V: Decrease the achievement gap (third grade reading, third grade math, English II, and Math I) between black and Hispanic males and their white male counterparts by 2 percentage points by 2022.
  • Similar to the change in Goal I, Goal V was revised to reflect achievement gap trends in the 12 largest districts in North Carolina, which includes GCS.
  • One of the revised KPIs deals with increasing the number of black and Latino male teachers; another was changed to focus on teachers in the 25 lowest performing schools, instead of the 10 lowest performing schools.