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Stanly County Schools students performed better on state exams for the 2021-22 academic year compared with the prior year, though slightly more than half still failed, according to test results released by the state on Thursday.

The district’s 47.4 percent grade level proficiency rate for all students slightly trailed the statewide proficiency rate of 51.4 percent.

It was a marked improvement from the 41.1 percent during the 2020-2021 year, but was well behind pre-Covid academic years. During the 2018-2019 year, for example, 57.5 percent of all SCS students passed their exams.

There was no data for 2019-2020, since end-of-year testing was waived due to the onset of the pandemic.

The proficiency rate was 48.5 percent for the exams given to elementary and middle school students, up from 40.9 percent in 2020-21, and 43.4 percent for exams given to high school students, up from 42.1 percent the prior school year.

Of the 23 schools in the district, all but four performed better on exams last school year. Endy Elementary, North Stanly High and Stanly County Virtual Education scored a few points worse. Stanfield Elementary actually had the same score — 48.5 percent of students achieved proficiency in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Other local districts, including Anson, Montgomery and Rowan-Salisbury, also had a majority of students not pass state exams.

One of the starkest differences in the newly-released testing scores came by race. According to the data released Thursday, 55.6 percent of Asian and 53.7 percent of white students across the district were grade-level proficient; however, only 40.9 percent Hispanic students and 23.5 percent of Black students achieved proficiency.

The student achievement data for the 2021-22 school year are based on analysis of all end-of-grade (EOG) and end-of-course (EOC) tests, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The data reveals the percentage of students who scored at Level 3 and above (grade level proficiency), at Level 4 and above (college and career readiness) and at each academic achievement level.

The new test results also include letter grades for each of the schools based largely on their test results along with their growth status. Seventeen of the 23 schools either “met” or “exceeded” growth last year while 11 schools scored at least a C or higher. Stanly Academy Learning Center received neither a grade nor status on its growth.

Stanly Early College High and Stanly STEM Early College were the only schools in the SCS district to receive A grades. Locust Elementary, Oakboro Choice STEM and West Stanly High received B grades. Gray Stone also received a B.

For the A-F school grades, 80 percent of the grade is based mostly on test scores and 20 percent is for growth, measured by a statistical model that evaluates schools’ progress across years, according to NCDPI.