1 in 6 NC 9th graders didn't make it to 10th grade this fall

That’s according to new retention data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The data cover public school districts and public charter schools and regional schools.

It’s the highest ninth-grade retention in nearly two decades. State data going back to the 2003-04 school year show similar retention rates for ninth graders and much higher retention for North Carolina students overall.

Retention refers to students not progressing to the next grade. At the ninth grade level, it means students didn’t earn enough credits — or pass enough classes — to be considered 10th graders.

Schools told WRAL News they’re planning intervention efforts and extra learning opportunities and have already reached some students who fell behind on course credits.

The state’s public schools have been increasing their graduation rates for years, and officials say part of that is through a focus on ninth grade.

“As we look at ninth graders in particular, that has always been historically an area where we see students struggle,” said Brian Pittman, senior director of high school programs in the Wake County Public School System.

Normally, the Wake County district hosts ninth grade orientations and has other increased supports for ninth graders and their families, Pittman said.

That moved online last year. Families weren’t as engaged, Pittman said.

The number of ninth grade students who fell behind more than doubled.

“A lot of the structures that we've had in the past were simply not as effective at supporting ninth graders as they have been previously in person,” he said.

So the Wake County Public School System, using federal COVID-19 stimulus funds, has hired more school counselors and intervention teachers as added measures to help keep students from failing courses in the first place, Pittman said.

In Chatham County, where the number of ninth graders who fell behind increased five-fold, the district has created opportunities for students to start earning core course credits during a “winter term,” after failing a fall class, spokeswoman Nancy Wykle said.

Remote learning was tough for district students last year, Wykle said, because many students had no home Internet access nor sufficient cell service to maintain a connection to their classwork.

Data show ninth grade is typically the year with the highest number of students not proceeding to the next grade level. Experts say that’s because the transition from eighth grade to high school can be tough.

In the few years before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 10,000 North Carolina ninth graders would fall short each year. This fall, after the first full year of the pandemic, 20,000 ninth graders who should have advanced did not. That came after a year in which most high school students spent most or all of the school year learning remotely.

In Wake County, the district kept high schools closed to in-person learning for most of the 2020-21 school year and to daily, in-person learning into the spring of 2021.

Part of that was because of a directive at the state level to keep classrooms and hallways sparse and prevent the spread of COVID-19.

About 1,000 Wake County Public School System ninth graders during the 2017-18 school year fell short of 10th grade status when fall 2018 came around. That’s 7.7% of the about 13,300 ninth graders, while only about 1.5% of students in other grades weren’t promoted to the next grade level.

But in Fall 2021, more than 2,200 of last year’s ninth graders were still in the ninth grade. That’s 16.1% of about 14,000 ninth graders, while 2.6% of students in other grades weren’t promoted.

In Chatham County Schools, 208 of 816 ninth graders last year — about 25.5% — didn’t achieve 10th grade status this fall. That compares to 3.0% of other students not reaching the next grade level. From the 2017-18 school year to fall 2018, 5.0% of ninth graders didn’t attain 10th grade status, and 1.3% of other students weren’t promoted to the next grade level.

Statewide, 16.2% of ninth graders weren’t promoted this fall, compared to 3.1% of students in other grades. About 8.0% of ninth graders during the 2017-18 school year weren’t promoted to ninth grade for fall 2018, compared to 2.0% of students in other grades.

WRAL News is comparing the latest data against data from 2017-18, because that is the most recent non-pandemic year for which district-level data is available.

Chatham County Schools has also increased dropout prevention efforts, instructional interventions and new instructional strategies at each high school.

The district is also measuring progress for students based on performance during earlier grades, Wykle said. For example, they can measure STAR reading assessment data for ninth graders against those same students’ assessment results from eighth grade or earlier.

Expanded learning programs like the winter term and summer learning should help Chatham County students progress toward grade level, Wykle said.

The in-person summer learning program helped students build better connections with educators and better academic skills, Pittman said.

“I think it's often — especially coming out of the pandemic — it is about building academic skills, but it's also about building student confidence in the skills that they already know,” Pittman said. “Because for many students, whether their grades reflected it or not, the pandemic was a time where they may have lost some confidence in some of the skills that they have as a student and as a learner.”

Students need to push themselves and challenge themselves, Pittman said, and confidence helps them do that.