Asheville City Schools reports modest midyear gains, expands tutoring after missed instruction

Asheville City Schools presented midyear assessment results and recovery plans to the school board on a February 2025 meeting, reporting modest gains on several universal screeners despite losing instructional time earlier in the school year.

Shannon Baggett, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, told the board that “even though we missed 22% of our school days from in that first semester, we’re still seeing growth at every grade level and in almost every subgroup.” She said that the district’s universal screeners showed improvements from the beginning of the year to midyear in several elementary grades and that district leaders regard tutoring and focused instructional coaching as central to continuing that progress.

The midyear snapshot the district shared includes results from multiple screeners and tests used at different grade spans: MCAS (a kindergarten–grade screening tool the district extends to grade 5), STAR (secondary reading), USNS (a math number‑sense screener), and first‑semester end‑of‑course exams at the high school. Molly Peoples, a member of the curriculum team, said kindergarten through third‑grade MCAS performance rose from 55.5% at the beginning of the year to 60% at midyear; fourth and fifth graders moved from about 62.2% to 68.1% at midyear.

District staff cautioned that benchmarks shift between the…