Amends GS 115C-12(9) requiring the State Board of Education (State Board) in determining a school's annual report card to award numerical school achievement and school growth scores and separate corresponding letter grades for each, in accordance with GS 115C-83.15 (was, an overall achievement, growth, and performance score on a scale of 0 to 100 and a corresponding performance letter grade). Mandates that the scores and grades reflect measures required for achievement and growth by GS 115C-83.15 and provides a list of measures as examples (was, requires the school performance score and grade to reflect student performance on the listed measures). Makes changes to terminology for the scores reflecting the new school achievement and school growth language throughout the remainder of GS 115C-12(9).
Makes conforming changes to the school scores and grades language in GS 115C-47(58) and GS 115C-83.15 title and subsections (a) and (d1).
Amends GS 115C-83.15 by adding subsections (b1) and (c1). Subsection (b1) provides the school achievement grade scale used to calculate school achievement grades (A, B, C, D, or F) based on the school achievement score received. Prohibits modification of the scale to add any other designation related to other performance measures like a “plus” or “minus.” Subsection (c1) provides the school growth grade scale used to calculate school growth grades (A, B, C, D, or F) based on the State Board’s conversion of the school growth score received to a 100-point scale. Prohibits modification of the scale to add any other designation related to other performance measures like a “plus” or “minus.”
Removes subsection (d) of GS 115C-83.15 entirely, which provided the calculation method for the previous overall school performance scores and grades.
Makes conforming changes to the school scores and grades language in GS 115C-83.15(d2) and adds references to subsections (b) through (c1); which provide the calculation of the school achievement score, school achievement grades, school growth score, and school growth grades, respectively. This includes replacing all references to subsection (d) with references to subsections (b) through (c1) throughout the subsection.
Makes conforming changes to the school scores and grades language in GS 115C-83.15(f) and throughout all subdivisions in GS 115C-83.15(g). Makes the following additional changes to GS 115C-83.15(g), which requires a list of information that should be displayed more prominently on the annual report card on the Department of Public Instruction’s website than any other information: (1) adds subdivision (2a), which adds a new piece of information to the list, the percentage of schools receiving a school growth letter grade of A, B, C, D, or F earned by each school located within a local school administrative unit and statewide; (2) amends subdivision (3) by requiring the number and percentage (was, number only) of schools that have met, exceeded, or have not met expected growth by each school located within a local school administrative unit and statewide.
Amends the following definitions in GS 115C-83.17: (1) achievement score – a numerical score (was, a numerical score on a scale of 0 to 100) based on the sum of points earned by a school or subgroup of students pursuant to GS 115C-83.15; (2) school grades (was, overall school performance grade) – the letter grades earned by a school for achievement and growth for all students served by a school pursuant to GS 115C-83.15(b1) and (c1) (was, the grade earned by a school for all students served by a school pursuant to GS 115C-83.15(d)); (3) school scores (was, overall school performance score) – the numerical scores earned by a school for achievement and growth pursuant to GS 115C-83.15(b) and (c) (was, the numerical score earned by a school, calculated by adding the school achievement score and school growth score pursuant to GS 115C-83.15(d)); (4) subgroup grades (was, subgroup performance grade) – the letter grades earned by a school for achievement and growth for a subgroup of students served by the school pursuant to GS 115C-83.15(d2) (was, one letter grade earned for a subgroup of students); (5) subgroup performance score (was, subgroup performance scores) – the numerical scores earned by a school for subgroup achievement and subgroup growth that are converted to a 100-point scale pursuant to GS 115C-83.15(d2) (was, one score calculated by adding the subgroup achievement score and growth score).
Makes technical and conforming changes to GS 115C-83.16 and adds to subsection (a) requiring the State Board to calculate the overall school performance score by adding the school achievement score and the school growth score earned by a school to comply with federal law. The achievement score must account for 51% and the growth score 49% of the total sum.
Makes conforming changes to GS 115C-105.37, GS 115C-105.39A, GS 115C-218.65, GS 115C-218.94(a), GS 115C-238.66(11), GS 116-239.8(b)(14), and GS 116-239.13(3).
Effective January 1, 2026, and applies to school achievement grades, growth grades, and report cards issued based on data from the 2025-2026 school year.

Statutes affected:
Filed: 115C-12, 115C-47, 115C-83.15, 115C-83.17, 115C-83.16, 115C-105.37, 115C-105.39A, 115C-218.65, 115C-218.94, 115C-238.66, 116-239.8, 116-239.13