Robbinsville – The N.C. Department of Public Instruction has issued its annual school performance grades for each district across the state, with mixed results in Graham County. Both Robbinsville elementary and high schools received a “C,” while Robbinsville Middle School was an “F.”
All three schools in the district welcomed both new principals and assistant principals for the 2024-25 calendar – a byproduct of newly appointed Superintendent Robert Moody’s strategy of moving staff around to increase productivity.
Coupled with presentations from each school at the Oct. 2 Graham County Board of Education meeting, the system has worked with consultants and local advisory panels alike to develop individual plans of action.
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The state did not issue grades in 2020 nor 2021 thanks to the impact COVID had on public education. Remote learning became the primary method after the pandemic was declared official in March 2020, but students were slowly allowed to resume in-school instruction months later – with an option to remain at home.
It wasn’t until fall 2021 that schools nationwide resumed normal schedules, though quarantine rules were still in effect. The disconnect of public-school students expected to perform at a high level – while not sitting in a classroom environment – was evident, as parents suddenly had to become tutors on curriculums that varied significantly from what they might have learned while in school.
Grades are determined based on achievement (end-of-grade or ACT) scores (80%); and growth (20%).
Robbinsville Middle received a “C” in 2019. The school dropped to a “D” in 2022 – when grades resumed – and 2023.
For the 2024 mark, Robbinsville Middle did not meet growth, dropping to a 64 after reaching 83.3 last year. The performance score was 36 (down from a 47).
Stuart Nelms was promoted to principal in July, replacing retired Tonia Walsh. Brent Icenhower has been named assistant principal.
Nelms said his biggest area of focus is “rigor in the classroom.” “The word ‘rigor’ gets tossed around, but that’s as far as it goes,” he said. “We’re trying to focus on teaching core content.”
Intervention is another way to help students.
“If a student is in eighth grade and struggling by reading on a sixth-grade level, they can get eighth-grade core (instruction) in class and, during that intervention time, they will get the sixth-grade material that helps to fill the gap and get them where they need to be,” Helms said.
Nelms also revealed the presence of Professional Learning Communities, or when teachers hold strategy sessions on methods of improving classroom instruction. It’s a method proposed to him by independent coaches, and it already seems to be paying dividends.
“They’re going to dissect data, they’re going to look at testing reports and dig deep,” Nelms said. “That’s going to hopefully improve instruction in the classroom.”
One of those coaches is Dr. Jeana Conley. Along with retired Clay County Schools instructor Jim Saltz and Amy Hobbs – another retired teacher from Graham County Schools – Conley is working with the Bridges to Learning Tutoring Center, a Murphy-based organization that helps students and school systems with specialized curriculums.
A graduate of Andrews High School, Conley served Cherokee County as an educator for 32 years, spending the last eight as the system’s superintendent until retiring in 2022. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English education from Western Carolina University as well as a doctorate in educational leadership from Liberty University.
She has logged a lot of time in Robbinsville Middle’s classrooms – alternating between three full days or six half-days each month, depending on the needs of instructors – and offered an honest assessment of how well things are going regarding the improvement plan.
“This is an opportunity to look at these grades as a blank canvas,” Conley said. “There are so many teachers that have came to the profession from a non-traditional educational background. I’ve been very pleased to have encountered those who are willing to hone their strategies and to do their presentations in a way that they can be delivered, so the students can retain information in a way that it needs to be.”
The nationwide teacher shortage has forced districts to get creative in its hiring practices, leading to some instructors taking over a classroom with little to no experience. There are both positives and negatives.
“Part of it is helping the faculty learn how to play the state’s game and how to score on that test,” Conley said. “But I do think it’s a mistake for anybody to judge a district based on the grade.”
She added that the formula used to calculate a school’s letter grade – 80/20, performance vs. growth – needs a second look.
“If I had any influence on policy, I’d flip that,” Conley said. “Every school in Graham County grew, which is what they expected the kids to do. That’s a lot to be proud of.
“One of the big things that we emphasize is that children are more than numbers. While I’ve been working in Graham County Schools, I’ve been so impressed with the level of care and dedication for all the students that these teachers work with.”