CMS outlines strategy to raise reading scores for grades 3–5, warns gains will be difficult

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Dr. Crystal Hill told the Board of Education on Jan. 14 that the district must accelerate reading growth in grades 3 through 8 and that the district’s interim focus for this year is grades 3 through 5.

"Goal 2 is increase the percent of students scoring college and career ready on reading end of grade assessments in grades 3 through 8 from 31 percent in June 2023 to 50 percent in June 2029," Dr. Hill said as she introduced the report on the board’s student-outcomes governance goal focused on reading.

The report and board discussion centered on MVPA benchmark projections administered districtwide. District staff said 61,565 students in grades 3–8 were assessed at the beginning of the school year and that 32% are projected to score at the level CMS defines as "college and career ready" (level 4 or 5). For the current school year the district’s target is 37%, and staff said the MVPA projections show CMS needs 3,136 additional students to reach that target across grades 3–8.

For the interim measure, district staff reported that among 31,322 students in grades 3–5, 33% are currently projected to be a level 4 or 5 and that the district needs 1,063 more students at that level to meet the 37% year target. Dr. Hill cautioned the board that the district’s most recent end-of-grade results showed a 1-percentage-point decline overall and described the year-over-year gains required as difficult.

"It's a herculean task," Dr. Hill said when asked if the 7 percentage-point year-over-year increase was attainable, citing the size of the district’s interventions and the need for consistent implementation.

Board members pressed for specifics. Board member Monterrey Duvall asked how interventions such as high-dosage tutoring and a differentiated "all block" (the core literacy block in grades 3–5) had contributed so far. Dr. Hill and staff said implementation fidelity was uneven: during recovery from the pandemic some schools had continued a hybrid approach described as "all-plus skills block," emphasizing skill work rather than the on-grade-level, differentiated core instruction required in grades 3–5. Staff said that shifting back to a pure, on-grade-level differentiated core during the all block is a priority.

District leaders described concrete classroom and system supports: defined module and all-block minutes, required intervention/enrichment blocks (30–45 minutes), standard treatment protocols for interventions (with defined time, frequency and progress monitoring), and a set of materials and exemplars for teachers. Staff also noted new reporting and monitoring tools that allow school leadership teams to triangulate MVPA results with classroom benchmarks (for example, DIBELS for third grade), attendance and other indicators so teams can identify students who are near the threshold between level 3 and level 4 and target instruction.

Questions about equity and English learners (ML/EL students) drew specific explanations. Dr. Hill said English learners are supported with language scaffolds, a "mini language dive" for new vocabulary, and a district PACE toolkit intended to guide teachers in making on-grade-level text accessible without assigning below-grade work. She said the team is deploying master teachers and instructional specialists into schools to support planning and teacher use of those scaffolds.

Board members repeatedly pressed on monitoring: how curriculum implementation, "core action walks" and usage reports from tools such as i-Ready will be used to measure fidelity between benchmarks. Staff said they will monitor usage reports, progress-monitoring data tied to standard treatment protocols, and the outputs of core action walks to adjust instruction more rapidly than waiting for the next MVPA.

The presentation identified family-facing supports as a strategic area of development. Staff said the district’s "family academy" and other outreach (lunch-and-learns, exemplars posted for families) aim to help parents understand what students should learn and how to support that learning.

Why it matters: Reading proficiency by the end of elementary grades is a common predictor of later academic outcomes and high school readiness. CMS leaders framed the work as urgent because the district’s multi-year goal seeks a roughly 19 percentage-point rise (31% to 50%) in CCR reading by 2029 and this year’s incremental increase is a necessary near-term step.

What’s next: Staff said the board will receive further monitoring reports in subsequent meetings with deeper quarterly evidence about intervention effectiveness and implementation fidelity; the district will also continue to refine professional development, master-teacher deployment and family supports.