All schools in the Roanoke Rapids Graded School District saw increases in achievement and academic proficiency during the 2025-2026 academic year, according to state testing data released Wednesday by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
Furthermore, four of the five schools met or exceeded expected growth. As a result of these efforts, the district said it is proud to announce that all of its schools have achieved a school performance grade of C or better, and thus, has no schools designated as low-performing.
“With increases in academic proficiency at every campus and with all of our schools achieving a C or better, we are seeing evidence that the strategies and systems put in place are working,” stated Lauren Hinnant, assistant superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, and Accountability. “The credit for these gains goes to our dedicated teachers, school administrators, and staff, who have worked tirelessly to keep the focus on students.”
The district’s grade level proficiency across all subject areas was 54.4%, up 4.2 points from the previous year and is the highest district proficiency rate in the Roanoke Valley.
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The district continued positive trends in grades 3-8 reading and math, while science saw gains in all tested areas in grades 5, 8, and high school biology.
One of the specific celebration areas for the entire district is that in all tested areas, the students with disabilities subgroups at each school all met or exceeded expected growth. “The exemplary efforts of supporting students with specific learning needs across all of our schools is to be commended and is a testament to our EC teachers, staff, and leaders,” stated Superintendent Bennett Jones. “These results highlight the quality and commitment of our teachers, staff, school leaders, and central office support who have worked to ensure alignment of core instructional strategies and content, supplemented with target supports, to best meet the needs of all students to help push them towards academic success.”
Some of the school data highlights include:
Belmont Elementary School — Exceeded school growth; increased student proficiency; met or exceeded growth in all subgroup areas; Maintained school performance grade (10 total points gained in school performance grade in last 2 years)
Manning Elementary School — Met school growth; increased student proficiency; increased school performance grade by 2 points (6 total points gained in last 2 years)
Chaloner Middle School — Met school growth; increased student proficiency by 4 points; increased school performance grade by 3 points (8 total points gained in last 2 years)
Roanoke Rapids Early College — Exceeded school growth; Earned school grade of A; increased student proficiency
Roanoke Rapids High School — Increased student proficiency in all subject areas; increased school performance grade to C
“While we take time to celebrate the accomplishments and achievements of our students and staff from last year, these data points also serve as catapults into even more improvement opportunities and elevated goals as we start a new school year,” stated Jones. “Our focus this year is to continue to raise the bar on student achievement and continue our work to improve student outcomes such as college and career readiness and graduation rates. We will support these efforts through continued professional development for our teachers and school leaders, targeted support for various student subgroups, and a focus on enhanced behavior support systems throughout the district.”
Academic gains seen in RRGSD have also been reported in statewide data released today by NCDPI. “These academic achievement results are a testament to the incredible work happening across North Carolina’s public schools,” North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Maurice “Mo” Green said. “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.”
