Dear CMS families and community members,

The 2010-2011 school year brought challenge and change to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, as well as some significant achievements.

Student academic progress slowed during the year, as measured by state assessments. In some areas, such as math in grades four and eight, we saw improvement. In others, such as math in grade seven, our scores held steady from the previous year. And in other areas, such as math in third, fifth and sixth grades, we declined.

In reading, scores rose in grades seven and eight. Test scores in grades four, five and six held steady and we saw a slight decline in grade three.

After several years of significant growth, we are concerned about the slowing of progress these test scores show. We are working this year to accelerate the pace of teaching and learning in our schools. Like many public school districts across the country, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools continues to struggle with shrinking funding. Last year marked the fourth consecutive year of declining budgets. This reduced the instructional staff in our schools and led to significant streamlining and cost-saving elsewhere.

But we did make significant progress in several areas, with 85.4 percent of our schools making expected or high growth last year. Our graduation rate increased to 73.5 percent. We continued to narrow achievement gaps in our district, although at a slower rate than in earlier years. We remained out of district improvement status, a measure of the progress we’ve made.

There were other measures of progress, too. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools was the 2011 winner of the Broad Prize, the largest such award in urban education. It is given to a public school district that shows overall academic improvement while also narrowing achievement gaps. CMS is the only district in North Carolina to win this prestigious prize. We are proud to have this national acknowledgement of our progress as a district and the outstanding work done by many of our teachers, staff and principals.

But the Broad Prize and our assessment results are also a reminder of how much we have left to do. We must increase the pace of improvement and close the achievement gaps at a faster rate. We are focusing on those goals this school year.

Hugh E. Hattabaugh

Interim Superintendent