Cabarrus Today

At Stanly County Schools, 170 out of 509 senior students taking the English portion of the ACT met the college readiness benchmark in the 2022-23 school year, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

English scores among the district's schools dropped to 33.4% compared to the previous school year, when 35.6% of students were considered ready for post-secondary education.

Stanly STEM Early College students stood out from schools in Stanly County Schools in English, with almost 69.6% of the 12th-graders hitting the ACT benchmark in the 2022-23 school year (16). Meanwhile, students from Albemarle High School struggled the most on the English portion, and only 16.7% were considered ready for college.

For comparison, North Carolina saw 41% of its students meeting or exceeding the ACT benchmarks for English during the 2022-23 school year.

Besides English, 28.7% of Stanly County Schools 12th-graders met reading college readiness benchmarks in the 2022-23 school year. In math, 16.5% of students were ready for college, and science scores revealed 15.7% of seniors also met the standard. Overall, Stanly County Schools had an average college readiness of 9.6% across all ACT areas.

North Carolina's education system is still grappling with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the 2022-23 ACT results, college readiness among North Carolina students falls short of pre-pandemic levels, with only 17.1% meeting benchmarks.

Additionally, the state's performance is lagging behind the national average, which currently stands at 21%.

School	Met or Exceeded Benchmarks (2021-22)	Met or Exceeded Benchmarks (2022-23)
Stanly STEM Early College	<5%	69.6%
Stanly Early College High	78.9%	59.5%
West Stanly High School	46.3%	47.7%
South Stanly High School	29.5%	21.2%
North Stanly High School	30.3%	20%
Albemarle High School	14.5%	16.7%
Stanly Academy Learning Center	7.7%	<5%
Stanly County Schools	35.6%	33.4%