North Carolina’s Accountability Shift: Balancing Record Progress with SB 257 Requirements

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) recently released the official accountability results for the 2025-2026 school year. While the statewide data shows historic gains, district administrators must also have an eye on a critical compliance shift. Under Senate Bill 257 (Session Law 2026-41), also known as the 2026 Appropriations Act, schools designated as low-performing face strict, non-optional math and reading requirements. Districts must update their school improvement plans via NCStar to incorporate these statutory mandates. This article reviews the academic data, explains the new statutory mandates, and outlines how districts can operationalize these requirements.

2025-2026 North Carolina Accountability Results

The statewide performance data released on September 2, 2026, shows a positive trajectory across several key metrics:

• Composite Proficiency: The all-subject and all-grade composite score for End-of-Grade (EOG) and End-of-Course (EOC) assessments reached 59.2% proficiency. This is the highest rate in three years, surpassing the pre-pandemic level of 58.8% from the 2018-2019 school year.
• School Performance Grades: Nearly 36% of schools earned an A or B performance grade, and the percentage of schools receiving a D or F dropped from 31% to 23%.
• Low-Performing Districts: The number of designated low-performing districts fell from 23 to 10.
• Graduation Rates: The four-year cohort graduation rate reached a record-high of 88.8%.

The table below outlines these multi-year trends, showing significant academic progress across all measured accountability indicators:

Formative Academic Gaps and Targeted EOG Solutions

Analyzing subject-specific performance data reveals critical gaps at key formative grade levels. Districts can address these targeted needs through specific instruction and intervention tools:

• Science Achievement: Biology EOC proficiency saw an 11-percentage-point increase in a single year, rising from 48% to 59%. Replicating this growth across other science grades requires consistent instruction aligned directly with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study (NCSCOS) science standards.
• Early Literacy Stagnation: Third and fourth-grade reading were the only two exams statewide that did not reach three-year highs in College-and-Career Ready (CCR, scoring Level 4 or 5) benchmarks. Districts should implement structured, foundational reading interventions that address individual skill deficits below grade level before students reach the spring testing window.
• Formative Math Deficits: While overall math performance is rising, identifying student math gaps through universal screening is only the first step. To satisfy state-mandated Mathematics Success Plans (MSPs), districts must establish systematic progress monitoring and targeted, standards-aligned practice that targets the specific skills flagged by screeners.

Statutory Requirements under Senate Bill 257

For districts with schools designated as low-performing, compliance with Senate Bill 257 is mandatory. The legislation introduces strict instructional and screening requirements:

• K-8 Daily Math Mandate: Low-performing K-8 schools must provide at least 60 minutes of daily, on-grade-level math instruction.
• Universal Math Screening: Low-performing schools must establish universal math screening three times annually in grades K-8.
• Mathematics Success Plans (MSPs): Schools must formulate an individual MSP and provide parent notification for any student who does not score grade-level proficient on the math screener.
• K-5 Reading Intervention: The law expands literacy screening and individual reading plans (IRPs) to grades 4-5.

The state budget appropriated $5 million for evidence-based math resources, $6 million for universal screeners, and $10 million for teacher professional development to support implementation. The rollout is phased; for example, NCDPI has until January 2028 to select an assessment vendor for low-performing charter schools, with full implementation scheduled for 2028-2029.

Operational Strategies for District Compliance and Implementation

To implement these statutory mandates successfully, North Carolina districts must coordinate scheduling, NCStar planning, and curriculum alignment to meet state standards:

• NCStar Alignment and the Robeson County Model: All low-performing campuses must submit updated school improvement plans through the NCStar platform. District leaders should write explicit, measurable action steps within NCStar that detail how they will execute the universal math screenings, manage parent notifications, and monitor Mathematics Success Plans (MSPs). For a model of successful implementation, NC administrators can study the Public Schools of Robeson County, which successfully exited the low-performing district list this year by utilizing standardized NCStar protocols to coordinate interventions across all campuses.
• Scheduling and Protecting the 60-Minute Math Block: Under SB 257, the 60 minutes of daily math instruction must be strictly “on-grade-level.” Operationalizing this requires Curriculum and Instruction Directors to enforce a clear boundary: the 60-minute block must be reserved for core Tier 1 instruction. Differentiated, adaptive practice designed to address the specific skill deficits flagged by universal screeners must occur outside of this 60-minute window or be integrated through a structured station-rotation model.
• Targeting Reading Stagnation via Expanded Grades 4-5 Reading Plans: Because statewide 3rd and 4th-grade reading scores did not hit three-year highs, the statutory expansion of literacy screenings and Individual Reading Plans (IRPs) to grades 4 and 5 is a critical operational focus. District leaders should establish a standardized, unified template for these new upper-elementary IRPs. This ensures a consistent transition of reading intervention data from grade 3 into grades 4 and 5.
• Establishing Sustainable Accountability baselines for High Schools: Since the average ACT® score of 18.4 is flagged by NCDPI as a temporary scoring anomaly, high school directors must not use this peak to set future accountability growth targets. Instead, high schools should focus on aligning daily classroom practice and mock assessments with actual ACT® and WorkKeys® standards to build a sustainable, data-driven postsecondary readiness metric.

Post-Identification Intervention and Progress Monitoring

District leaders must distinguish between student identification and the actual instructional response. Universal screeners diagnose learning gaps, but they do not close them. Districts must establish high-impact, standards-aligned intervention strategies to support Mathematics Success Plans (MSPs) and Individual Reading Plans (IRPs).

Once a universal screener identifies student needs, Progress Learning’s K-12 platform and Liftoff (adaptive intervention for grades 2-8) help teachers close those gaps:

• Liftoff Adaptive Intervention (Grades 2-8): Designed specifically for struggling learners, Liftoff pinpoints student deficiencies below grade level and builds personalized, adaptive learning paths to guide them back to EOG grade-level expectations.
• Standards-Aligned Practice Across Core Subjects: Access to a rigorous, educator-written item bank built directly to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study (NCSCOS). This ensures daily classroom practice remains highly aligned with the depth and format of state assessments.
• Formative Assessment Checkpoints: Using the pre-built and custom assessment builder, educators can easily create frequent formative assessments and classroom activities. These checkpoints serve as vital instructional benchmarks, helping teachers adjust daily pacing long before the spring testing window.
• Comprehensive Progress Tracking and Reporting: Robust, real-time reporting at the student, class, campus, and district levels provides administrators with the actionable data required to document NCStar school improvement goals and monitor individual success plans.

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