GREENSBORO Guilford County Schools has made measurable progress on many different fronts over the last three years but not much when it comes to increasing the overall percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced on end-of-grade or course tests.

On Monday, the administration released its annual report on the progress made toward strategic goals. Officials have been working toward the 2016 goals since 2013.

Among the highlights, the district:

The district is also hovering within striking distance of its 2016 goal of 90 percent of students graduating from high school in four years. The graduation rate is 89.4 percent a district record up from 86.2 in 2012-13.

However, the report showed the district made what it called good progress on only one of its 12 End of Course or End of Grade proficiency goals. Specifically, the percentage of students scoring at college- and career-ready levels on end-of-grade tests in fifth- and eighth-grade science.

Since 2013-14 thats increased from nearly 50 percent of students scoring at advanced levels to nearly 58 percent still short of the 61.6 percent goal the district wanted.

On another goal, the district came up short. Grade-level proficiency in third through eighth grade reading has stayed right around 52 percent for the last three years despite a goal of 66.5 percent.

Today, our schools fall on a spectrum, with some excelling beyond state and national standards and others still struggling, Contreras, the districts new leader, wrote in her introduction to the report.

Interestingly, district leaders did point to progress on end-of-year tests but by a different measure. Proficiency which the state stresses measures the percentage of students scoring at grade level or at college and career levels on end-of-grade tests. But tests can also measure how much schools increase individual students knowledge and capabilities in a given year.

Thats known as growth and theres currently a raging battle in education circles about the relative merits of proficiency versus growth.

By using growth as a measurement, though, the district is succeeding. According to the report, almost 83 percent of all schools met or exceeded their expected growth in 2016. Thats up from about 80 percent of schools in 2015. Its also above the state average of 73.6 percent.

Reached by phone Monday, Contreras said the state emphasizes proficiency over student growth in how it evaluates schools and districts. Thats not her preference. She thinks measuring how much progress schools make in educating each student is a fairer method.

However, 80 percent of a schools letter grade from the state comes from proficiency and 20 percent from student growth.

I disagree with that, she said.

Asked whether the district is likely to keep the same goals for EOC and EOG tests given that they werent met Contreras said its premature for her to say. Shell make decisions about the next round of goals in cooperation with the countys board of education.

She said she and other district leaders are proud of where progress has been made. In addition to academic measures like the number of students taking or passing a college course, she pointed to a major increase in the number of students earning a service-learning certificate for the work theyve done in high school.

The district also blew away a goal for decreasing out-of-school suspensions. The goal was to decrease suspensions by 10 percent from the 2011-12 school year to 2015-2016. Instead, the number decreased by about 22 percent.

Contact Jessie Pounds at (336) 373-7002 and follow @JessiePounds on Twitter.

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Guilford Schools annual report shows mixed results on progress - Greensboro News & Record (blog)