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The Cherokee County Schools of Innovation & Technol- ogy’s main entrance at sunrise in Peachtree.
Murphy – Cherokee County Schools officials are proud of how most schools in the district performed in the most recent grades released by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.
Cherokee County Schools showed improvement in growth, grades and proficiency, including several schools ranked in the top 10 percent in the western region of the state.
Results were presented to the Cherokee County Board of Education at its Nov. 16 meeting. The report showed the most recent results and compared it with results from the 2021-22 school year.
For example, in 2021-22, only Andrews Middle School exceeded growth. In the 2022-23 report, It was joined by Murphy Elementary School, Murphy High School and Martins Creek Elementary & Middle School in the latest report.
The number of schools that met growth expectations declined from nine in 2021 to five in 2022-23, mainly because three schools improved to the “exceeded growth” category.
Schools that did not meet growth were Andrews High School, Hiwassee Dam High School (unchanged from the previous year), plus Ranger Elementary & Middle School, which went from meeting growth the previous year.
Letter grades assigned to Cherokee County Schools also showed improvement. Try-County Early College, which received a “B” grade in 2021-22, received an “A” for 2022-23. Peachtree Elementary School, which received a “C” in 2021-22, received a “B” in 2022-23, joining Murphy High. Martins Creek, which received a “D” in 2021-22, received a “C” in the most current report.
Still underperforming were Andrews High and Hiwassee Dam High, which did not meet growth in either report; and Andrews Elementary School, which received a “D” letter grade both years.
Ranger was the only school that received a lower rating from the previous year. It met growth in 2021-22, but did not meet growth in 2022-23.
Cherokee County Schools also performed better in proficiency. The percentage of students who scored a Level 3, 4 or 5 on end-of-grade testing improved to 56.2 percent for the most recent year compared to 52.4 percent for the previous year. Cherokee County Schools also performed better than the state average of 53.6 percent.
Cherokee County’s performance in ACT testing declined from 46.6 percent in 2021-22 to 42.9 percent in 2022-23, although the county still bests the state percentage of 41,1 percent.
Cherokee County Schools also improved its graduation rate from 91.4 percent in 2021-22 to 92 percent in 2022-23, significantly better than the state percentage of 86.5 percent.
Three schools were ranked high in the region.
- Martins Creek Elementary School ranked first for highest growth index overall in the western region for pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade schools.
- Peachtree Elementary School ranked first for highest growth index in reading in the western region for pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade schools.
- Andrews Middle School ranked first for highest growth index in mathematics in the western region for middle school grades 6-8.