Wake, NC school test scores see big gains this year to reach pre-pandemic levels

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The Wake County school system saw its largest single-year gain in test scores in more than a decade — finally reaching pre-pandemic achievement levels this year.

New statewide data released on Wednesday shows that Wake’s passing rate on state exams rose to 68.2% in the 2025-26 school year — a gain of 3.8 percentage points. It’s Wake’s highest proficiency rate since 2012 and the first time this decade that the district has exceeded its pre-pandemic passing rate of 65.2% from the 2018-19 school year.

“These results show exceptional progress across our district and, most importantly, for our students,” Wake County Superintendent Robert Taylor said in a news release. “We saw strong gains in reading, math, and science, improvement among many student groups, a higher graduation rate, and fewer schools identified as low-performing.”

The statewide proficiency rate also exceeded 2019 levels for the first time since the pandemic.

Statewide, 59.2% of North Carolina students passed state exams last school year. That’s up from 55% in the 2024-25 school year. It’s also now above the 58.8% statewide passing rate in 2019.

In addition, the state’s four-year high school graduation rate rose a percentage point to a record-high of 88.8% There had been concern that the graduation rate might drop due to increased immigration enforcement efforts.

The state Department of Public Instruction also reported more schools receiving an A, B or C school performance grade and fewer schools being labeled as low-performing. The performance grades are based mainly on passing rates on state exams along with whether schools are showing academic growth in their students.

“These academic achievement results are a testament to the incredible work happening across North Carolina’s public schools,” State Superintendent Mo Green said in a news release. “While I am pleased to see these results trending positively, including our highest graduation rate ever, I look forward to continued progress as we aim to achieve educational excellence for all North Carolina public school students and become the best public education system in the nation.”

The new results are a milestone for schools that had seen test scores drop statewide and nationally after the pandemic.

The lack of in-person instruction for the end of the 2019-20 school year and much of the 2020-21 school year is credited for producing historic drops in student achievement. Schools switched to remote instruction due to concerns about spreading COVID-19.

The 2020-21 school year saw record-low proficiency rates of 45.4% statewide and 55.4% in Wake County.

The picture was much different this year in Wake, which is North Carolina’s largest school district.

Results released on Wednesday include:

“That progress reflects the hard work happening every day in our classrooms and schools,” said Taylor, the Wake superintendent. “We also know there is more work ahead, particularly in closing gaps and ensuring every student has access to the instruction and support they need to succeed. Our focus now is on building on this progress and continuing to raise expectations and outcomes for every student.”

Wake’s gains were fueled by academic growth in schools such as Leesville Road Middle School in Raleigh. Leesville had the second-highest academic growth score in the district as well as seeing gains in the percentage of students passing state exams.

Chris Cox, Leesville Middle’s principal, said it starts with helping create a feeling of safety and belonging for students. From there, he said academic achievement should result.

“Public school can be messy and chaotic at times because you have all walks of life walking through your doors on any given day,” Cox said in an interview. “And so the goal here is we have a place where people can walk in and exhale and be like, ‘OK, I’m good. I’m good at Leesville Road Middle School. My day can be good because I showed up today, and because I have people that I can trust in my circles.’”

Leesville relies on educators such as Tom Hartenstein, an eighth-grade math teacher who has some of the highest student growth scores in the district After 25 years, Hartenstein has developed a system that recognizes the challenges of dealing with the attention spans of his pre-teen and early teen students.

Hartenstein says he knows he can’t expect to keep students working on math problems for the entire hour. So his classes are filled with bursts of five-to-eight minutes of activity doing math problems followed by games and brain breaks.

“When kids are happy to go to school and when they’re happy sitting in your classroom, they have no choice,” Hartenstein said in an interview. “They don’t even know that they’re working as hard as they’re working because they’re happy.”

One of Hartenstein’s success stories last school year is Ryan Oleko. State data had predicted Oleko wouldn’t do well on the state end-of-grade math exam. But by the end of the school year, Oleko had the highest score in the school.

“A lot of friends to make here,” said Oleko, 14, now a freshman at Leesville Road High School taking honors math. “A lot of good teachers, too. Yeah, I’m grateful. I’m grateful for Leesville Middle School.”

All the other Triangle school districts also saw gains in their passing rates. Several districts exceeded their pre-pandemic rates from 2019 for the first time.

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This story was originally published September 2, 2026 at 10:27 AM with the headline “Wake, NC school test scores see big gains this year to reach pre-pandemic levels.”