By: Paul B. Johnson

GUILFORD COUNTY —The Guilford County Board of Education received an update Tuesday night on a bottom-line scholastic goal — improving student performance and growth in academic achievement.

Guilford County Schools Chief Performance Officer Akisha Sarfo reported on the school district’s goal to increase the number of schools that exceed academic achievement growth by 50% by 2022.

The school system also wants to decrease the achievement gap between African-American and Latino students and their white counterparts by 7 percentage points by 2022.

Most schools, 74%, met or exceeded growth in 2019. Across grades three through eight, Guilford students exceeded growth in reading for the past three years.

In mathematics, students met or exceeded growth for the past three years.

Also, the school system recorded a larger percentage of teachers meeting professional growth standards than the state average.

Board member Winston McGregor asked the staff what resources are needed to continue to make progress. Superintendent Sharon Contreras responded that coaching and professional development of staff through mentoring would make a difference.

“There are an increasing number of teachers coming in from outside the field,” Contreras sasid.

In other business, the school board thanked its financial services staff for earning a professional recognition for the 25th consecutive year. The staff earned a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association.

School board member Anita Sharpe thanked the staff on behalf of the board for its long run of accomplishment in handling the budget details of the school system.

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