(The Center Square) – Fifty-four percent of North Carolina public school high school graduates passed at least one-college level course while still in high school, education officials said Thursday.
“For those who have been around a moment and have gray hair or less hair, understand the magnitude of that number, that percentage,” first-term Democratic Superintendent Mo Green told members of the state school board. “This, my friends, is amazing. That’s why I say to all who are involved in our public schools in North Carolina, take a bow.”
Sa’Nai Lewis-DeWalt of Cumberland County was one of the students who completed college classes as a high school student.
When she first learned of the program, she wasn’t sure she wanted to take college classes.
“I thought it would take away from my high school experience,” she told state school board members. “But I was severely wrong.”
She has taken four online college classes along with two week in-person courses at her local community college. She took college classes while still participating in sports and taking advanced placement courses at her high school.
“The college courses have definitely been challenging,” she said. “As a student athlete, prioritizing and time management have been essential. I have learned to plan my week carefully, finishing assignments way ahead of time whenever I can so that game day, practices, meetings or other school events do not overwhelm me. When you fall behind in a college course, it’s very hard to catch up.”
She plans to pursue a career in law, youth advocacy and “making an impact in my community.”
The college credits she earned in high school will reduce the time it takes her to earn a full college degree, she told the board.
“Now I have the opportunity to graduate from college two years earlier than expected which saves me time and definitely reduces the financial burden,” Lewis-Dewalt said.
The new statistics on high school students completing college courses are the latest in a string of good numbers that reflect on the improving performance of North Carolina public schools, Green told the board.
“Go tell it on the mountain,” the superintendent said. “Tell it to your friends, your church members, your family.”
The goal is for North Carolina public schools to be the best in the nation, Green said.
“We are the best that we have ever been and that puts us at a really great place,” he told the board. “We’re at a tipping point.”
There was a time when only the top students could take college classes in high school, the superintendent said.
“We have reached the point now where over half of our students are doing so,” he said. “We are at that tipping point where we ought to be able to say, “Why are you not doing it?’”
