NC House Republicans question DPI’s data on student achievement

Republican members of the House Education K-12 committee on May 12 challenged the framing from the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI) on student achievement, telling DPI officials its metrics may overstate how prepared North Carolina students are for college and careers.

Michael Maher, chief accountability officer for DPI, told the committee that North Carolina hit a three-year proficiency high in 2025, with the highest graduation rate in state history at 88%, record AP participation, and the second-highest number of career and technical education credentials earned of any state. 

But Republican state Reps. David Willis of Union County and Hugh Blackwell of Burke County pushed back on the gap between those numbers and external benchmarks like the ACT standardized test, which every North Carolina junior takes and which shows roughly a third of students are college- or career-ready.

“The 92% rate that we’re looking at [for] graduation right now, I think is extremely misleading,” Willis said, referring to the state board’s goal of a 92% graduation rate by 2030. He pointed to community-college remediation data showing “students who are not ready for remedial math or English.”

“I think we need to start telling the truth about what the current status of education is in North Carolina, and truly work towards being the best in the country, and not just how we can get there on paper,” Willis said.

Blackwell pointed to the ACT. “My understanding is that the ACT, fairly consistently, is indicating that barely a third of high school juniors are career or college ready,” he told Maher. “Does that say anything about the reliability of all these proficiency tests?”

Maher told the committee that ACT participation is universal in North Carolina, which he said colors the results.

“I would contend that we are requiring every junior to take this test whether or not they have indicated they are interested in college,” he said. “And so you can imagine the motivation to take that test might vary between those who see themselves as college going and those who do not.”

Blackwell pushed back: “What suggests that they’re motivated on the state-designed test, whereas they’re not motivated on the ACT, which is nationally normed? I really think that there’s a lot of holes in what you say.”

Blackwell had pressed DPI on the same one-third ACT readiness figure at a March committee hearing on the state’s math standards, where Willis and Rep. Brian Biggs, R-Randolph, also raised concerns about declining proficiency through the grades.

Maher’s broader pitch was that 2025 was a strong year by most state measures. Reading and math proficiency hit a three-year high on 12 of 15 end-of-grade and end-of-course tests, he said. Math gains showed up “across nearly every grade level,” and more than half of North Carolina graduates completed college-level coursework. 

He also acknowledged persistent gaps, including a roughly 25-point spread in reading proficiency between economically disadvantaged students and their peers.

The presentation came as DPI prepares to ask the General Assembly to change how the state grades its schools. Maher said North Carolina assigned a D or F to 33% to 43% of its schools in recent years, while peer states with statistically similar student performance assigned D or F to as few as 4% to 6%.

“We’re over-identifying the number of schools that need support, which puts a strain on the entire system,” he said.

Maher said DPI plans to bring formal recommendations on a new accountability model to the General Assembly in the long session, which begins in 2027.

“NC House Republicans question DPI’s data on student achievement” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.