Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools achieved across-the-board academic growth, marking a significant leap in proficiency and performance for the 2025-26 school year.

The results were released Sept. 2 as part of North Carolina’s annual school accountability reporting and reflect continued progress across CMS schools and student groups.

“This progress belongs to our students, teachers, school leaders, staff and families,” said Superintendent Dr. Crystal Hill. “These results show what is possible when we remain focused on strong instruction, high expectations and providing every student with the support they need to succeed. We are proud of the progress our students are making, and we remain committed to building on this momentum.”

CMS increased overall grade-level proficiency in every tested content area in 2025-26.

Among the district’s year-over-year gains:

• Reading, grades 3-8: 56.7% proficient, an increase of 4 percentage points
• Math, grades 3-8: 62.7%, up 3.5 points
• Science, grades 5 and 8: 69.3%, up 7.6 points
• English II: 66.0%, up 6.8 points
• High School Math 1: 42.0%, up 13.0 points
• High School Math 3: 69.4%, up 2.8 points
• Biology: 58.4%, up 9.8 points

The gains are particularly notable in literacy: 76.9% of third grade students demonstrated proficiency through the state’s Read to Achieve measure. Third grade reading proficiency on the state assessment increased 11 percentage points, from 46.3% to 57.3%.

CMS also outperformed the statewide grade-level proficiency rate in grades 3-8 reading, with 56.7% of CMS students proficient compared with 52.5% statewide. CMS improved four percentage points from the previous year, compared with a 2.4-point statewide increase.

The progress extends beyond individual assessments to schools across the district. Nearly 79% of CMS schools earned an A, B or C school performance grade, an increase of approximately 8 percentage points from 2024-25 and 26 percentage points since 2021-22.

Additionally, 122 schools improved their numerical school performance grade score during the 2025-26 school year.

At the same time, the number of CMS schools designated as low-performing continued to decline. Twenty-eight schools received the designation in 2025-26, down from 31 last year and 50 in 2021-22.

The majority of CMS schools also continued to demonstrate strong student growth, with 83.8% meeting or exceeding expected growth.

CMS also saw meaningful progress among its graduating students. The district’s four-year cohort graduation rate increased to 87.9% in 2025-26, up 3.3 percentage points from the previous year.

“These results represent thousands of individual stories of students learning, growing and reaching important milestones,” Hill said. “Our responsibility now is to continue accelerating that progress so that every student, in every school and every community, has access to an excellent education.”

CMS will continue analyzing the results at the district, school and student-group levels as it advances the goals and guardrails established in the district’s 2024-29 Strategic Plan.

Click here for a presentation with all the highlights, along with a brochure in both English and Spanish.

Click here for the state’s accountability data sets and reports.