NHCS district sees incredible growth in ’22-’23 school year, now 15th out of 115 NC school districts

Of the 40 schools in the district, 36 of them either met or exceeded the state’s academic standards in the 2022-23 school year, compared to 27 the previous school year.

Half of those 36 schools met their expected academic growth and half exceeded it.

With these improvements, New Hanover County is now 15th in North Carolina, out of 115 total districts.

Superintendent Dr. Charles Foust said this shows the hard work his educators are putting in to help students learn and grow.

“We are a high-performing school district,” Foust said. “That if you send your child to New Hanover County Schools, we will educate them with a high level of rigor. That’s what I want parents to understand is that we take into consideration all of the modalities of learning and our teachers are doing it. Our leaders are leading and so that’s what’s the exception about New Hanover County schools, that we are outperforming all of the school districts around us.”

One of the schools that helped New Hanover County perform so well was Holly Shelter Middle School, which is ranked fifth overall in the state for growth.

Holly Shelter’s principal, Dr. Brad Lewis, said the school has improved so much because growth is their biggest priority.

“A lot of hard work by our students, a lot of hard work by our teachers of kind of encouraging those students and working with them and we really talk about growth,” Lewis said. “Like our whole goal every year at the start for teachers is a year’s growth for every student in the building, period. That is goal #1.”