RALEIGH — At its November meeting, the N.C. State Board of Education amended a policy removing the ability to take nonelective core courses required for graduation using a pass/fail grading method.
“Pass (P) may be used for elective courses. A pass may not be awarded for non-elective graduation requirements,” the new policy language states.
The policy amendment, which will take effect next year, addresses the pass/fail option some districts are using for students in Credit Recovery Programs.
Such programs are supposed to allow students to redo a portion of a course for a student to gain mastery and raise their overall grade. However, some districts have allegedly been using Credit Recovery for the entirety of a course, which has led to some criticism that some districts are allowing students to do the bare minimum to obtain a “pass” in a course they initially failed.
Other items considered by the board included the annual reports to the General Assembly, including low-performing schools, the Public School Unit Report, the Parent’s Guide to Student Achievement and policy updates to parental concern hearings.
The number of low-performing schools decreased from 864 in 2022 to 735 in 2024. Similarly, the number of low-performing districts increased from 29 to 23 during the same period.
Despite those decreases, the number of continually low-performing schools has increased from 464 in 2022 to 730 in 2024. The same was true for public charter schools for the same time frame, going from 35 to 59.
Additionally, Read to Achieve amendments and academic credit for work-based learning pertaining to counties impacted by Hurricane Helene were also discussed and approved.
