N.C. School Report Cards and Student Achievement, 2022-2023

  • North Carolina School Report Card North Carolina School Report C ard

  • Every year, the N.C. Department of Public Instruction issues a report card for each public school and public school district in the state.  The report card provides information about student performance, academic achievement, teacher qualifications, school environment, and other topics.

    The State Report Card for Gaston County Schools offers a summary about the school district for the 2022-2023 academic year.  You may use the search feature below to find the individual state report card for each school in the district.

    You may visit the N.C. School Report Cards website for additional information.  If you have a question about the state report card for an individual school, please contact the principal.

Report Cards by School

School N.C. School Report Card
Ashbrook High NC School Report Card
H.H. Beam Elementary NC School Report Card
W.B. Beam Intermediate NC School Report Card
Belmont Central Elementary NC School Report Card
Belmont Middle NC School Report Card
W.A. Bess Elementary NC School Report Card
Bessemer City Central Elementary NC School Report Card
Bessemer City Middle NC School Report Card
Bessemer City High NC School Report Card
Bessemer City Primary NC School Report Card

Additional Information

  • News Release: Results show improvement in academic achievement
    State testing and accountability data for the 2022-2023 academic year indicates that school districts across North Carolina, including Gaston County Schools, continue to recover from learning loss that occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to information released by the N.C. State Board of Education and N.C. Department of Public Instruction.  

    Charts: Student Proficiency, Academic Growth, Graduation Rate, School Performance Grades 
    The charts provide information about student proficiency, academic growth, the graduation rate, and school performance grades.  The charts include proficiency information for 2018-2019 (pre-pandemic) to illustrate the influence of the pandemic on academic achievement.  Because of pandemic-related factors, it is not possible to have an apples-to-apples comparison of proficiency rates for 2018-2019 and 2021-2022.

    Letter from Interim Superintendent Stephen C. Laws
    Here is a letter from Superintendent of Schools Stephen C. Laws, Ed.D., about the N.C. School Report Cards for the 2022-2023 academic year.

Academic Growth

  • Academic growth indicates whether students achieve a year’s worth of academic progress for a year’s worth of instruction.  Growth is reported in one of three ways:  Exceeded Growth, Met Growth, or Did Not Meet Growth.  For the 2022-2023 school year, Gaston County had 73 percent of its schools (37 of 51) to meet or exceed overall academic growth expectations.

    At the elementary school level, Carr, Catawba Heights, Lowell, North Belmont, Pinewood, and Rankin exceeded overall academic growth expectations.  Bessemer City, Chavis, Cramerton, Southwest, Stanley, and York Chester exceeded overall expectations among the middle schools.  At the high school level, Gaston Early College, Gaston Early College of Medical Sciences, Highland, and South Point exceeded overall expectations. 

School Performance Grades

  • The state uses the testing and accountability data to give school performance grades, which were assigned for the first time in 2014.  A school’s performance letter grade is determined using a formula based only on two factors:  student achievement/test scores (80 percent) and student academic growth (20 percent).  

    The school performance grade should not be interpreted as a comprehensive evaluation that determines the quality of a school.  Only select criteria are used to determine the grade.  School size, diverse student population, socioeconomics, teacher experience, student learning obstacles, special programs, parental and community involvement, and other factors have an effect on a school’s performance, but are not considered in the grade.

    For the 2022-2023 school year, Gaston County had nearly two-thirds of its schools (32 of 51) to earn an A, B, or C grade – three schools received an A grade, eight schools received a B grade, and 21 schools received a C grade.  Gaston Early College High School, Gaston Early College of Medical Sciences, and Highland School of Technology are the schools with an A grade.

    Twelve schools are within three or fewer points of achieving a higher school performance grade:  Beam Intermediate, W.A. Bess, Cramerton, East Gaston, Grier, Holbrook, Hunter Huss, Lingerfeldt, Rankin, Robinson, South Point, and Woodhill.  South Point High School is three points away and Cramerton Middle School is two points away from having an A school performance grade, which is a status that is difficult to achieve.

    The test scores released by the state are preliminary results.  The results will be verified, and the official results will be a part of the district and school report cards, which will be issued this fall.

Graduation Rate

  • The Gaston County graduation rate for the Class of 2023 is 85.3 percent.  Six schools have a graduation rate of 90 percent or higher: Gaston Early College (100 percent), Highland (99.2 percent), South Point (94.2 percent), Cherryville (93.2 percent), East Gaston (91.9 percent) and Forestview (90.4 percent).  Cherryville (+7.6) and East Gaston (+5.3) had the most significant increases when compared to the previous year.    

    Called the four-year cohort graduation rate, it reflects the percentage of students who entered the ninth grade in 2019-2020 and graduated four years later in 2022-2023. The four-year graduation rate is not the same as the dropout rate, which indicates the number of students who drop out of high school in a given year.  When the state first calculated the four-year cohort graduation rate in 2005-2006, Gaston County’s rate was a mere 68.1 percent.

    Some students need an extra year of high school to complete graduation requirements.  The district’s five-year cohort graduation rate is 86.0 percent.  The five-year cohort graduation rate reflects the number of students who entered the ninth grade in 2018-2019 and graduated in 2022-2023.

Student Proficiency

  • Students in grades 3-8 are tested in reading and math, and a science test is given in the fifth and eighth grades.  High school students take state tests in four subject areas: Math I, Math III, Biology, and English II. Proficiency is based on the number of students scoring a Level III, IV, or V on the state tests.

    • Gaston’s overall proficiency rate for 2022-2023 is 50.2 percent, which is 1.8 points higher than last year’s rate of 48.4.  The state rate is 53.6 percent. \
    • Among elementary schools and middle schools, the most significant gains are in reading for sixth grade (+3.7) and eighth grade (+3.5) and in math for fourth grade (+4.2) when compared to the previous year. Although student proficiency in science (tested in the fifth and eighth grades only) decreased for 2022-2023, the percent of students scoring proficient in science remains higher than the district’s overall reading and math proficiency.
    • At the high school level, Math III (+8.9) and Biology (+4.2) had a significant increase in the percentage of students scoring at or above grade level (achieving proficiency).  The proficiency rate for English II increased slightly (+0.6) while the proficiency rate for Math I dipped only one-tenth of a point when compared to the previous year.
    • The elementary schools with the highest student proficiency are Hawks Nest, New Hope, Belmont Central, North Belmont, W.A. Bess, Pinewood, and Rankin.  Kiser (+10.5) leads the elementary schools with the most significant increase in student proficiency.  Other elementary schools with a significant increase are Carr (+9.6), New Hope (+6.5), Pinewood (+5.6), and Costner (+5.4).
    • The middle schools with the highest student proficiency are Cramerton, Belmont, and Stanley.  Bessemer City (+7.7) had the most significant increase in student proficiency among the middle schools.
    • The high schools with the highest student proficiency are Highland, Gaston Early College, Gaston Early College of Medical Sciences, and South Point.  The high schools with the most significant increase in student proficiency are Bessemer City (+13.1), North Gaston (+11.0), and Cherryville (+9.1).
    • The Gaston Virtual Academy (online school for all grades) had a double-digit increase in student proficiency (+10.6) when compared to the previous year.