BY KARISSA MILLER

Recent student performance data suggests Iredell County taxpayers are getting a solid return on their investment in public education.

During the Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education’s December meeting, Superintendent Jeff James pointed to the district’s end of grade test results and graduation rate as evidence of the quality of education I-SS provides. 

“Iredell-Statesville Schools is leading the pack as far as similar size counties across the state,” James said.

Meanwhile, the district rates among the lowest funded in the State of North Carolina.

When factoring federal, state and local per pupil funding allocations, I-SS ranked the second lowest per pupil funding in 2021-2022 among several peer districts.

Local Per Pupil Funding

• Buncombe: $2,886
• Rowan-Salisbury: $2,532
• Iredell: $2,099
• Alamance Burlington: $2,000
• Randolph: $1,754
• Davidson: $1,140
• Robeson: $1,005

“We are 112 out of 116 when it comes to funding,” James said. “We’re in the top when it comes to academic performance,” James said.

Testing Data

The superintendent touted students’ performance on the end of grade math assessments in grades 3-8. The number of students who were proficient, he said, improved 4 percentage points from 2021 to 2022.

With 57 percent of I-SS students proficient in 2022, the district was 7 percentage points higher than the state average and at least 3 percentage points better than all peer districts.

EOG Math Proficiency

• Iredell: 57
• Davidson: 54
• Buncombe: 52
• Randolph: 48
• Alamance Burlington: 48
• Rowan-Salisbury: 30
• Robeson: 27

Reading scores also improved with I-SS reading assessments improving 3 percentage points from 2021 to 2022. I-SS was at 53 percent in 2022, which was 5 percentage points higher than the state average. The district also scored at least 4 percentage points better than its peer districts.

EOG Reading Proficiency

• Iredell: 53
• Davidson: 49
• Buncombe: 48
• Randolph: 41
• Alamance-Burlington: 37
• Rowan-Salisbury: 34
• Robeson: 27

Another positive indicator for the district was an increase in the graduation rate.

For I-SS, the graduation rate increased to 88.1 percent in 2022, which beats the state average of 86.4 percent for 2022. I-SS also outpaced similar sized districts.  

Graduation Rates

• Iredell: 88.1
• Davidson: 85
• Randolph: 87.9
• Buncombe: 89.8
• Alamance-Burlington: 86
• Robeson: 84.6
• Rowan-Salisbury: 84.5

Chronic Absenteeism

The district’s chronically absent rate was 20 percent in 2021, which was 7 percentage points better than the state average. It was only higher than only one peer county, Davidson County, which was 16 percent.

During the presentation, the superintendent also mentioned the need to close the achievement gap for low-income students.

He advocates for prekindergarten for students.

“We need universal pre-K for those that are in poverty. The earlier we start educating those in poverty the greater impact we will see,” James said.

Studies show that children who attend pre-K have a better chance of staying on a positive trajectory, while making learning gains throughout their formative years than those who didn’t.