Data-Driven Education Journalism for the Tar Heel State
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North Carolina cut the white-Black graduation gap from 13 points to 5 in a decade. Then it stopped narrowing. The remaining gap means about 1,600 Black students per year who would graduate at white rates.
Durham Public Schools improved from a 41% peak to 37%, then flatlined. The district has the highest chronic rate among NC's 30,000+ student districts.
Guilford County Schools just posted a record 92.2% graduation rate, the highest of any large NC district. The state's third-largest system hasn't dipped below 89% since 2016.
North Carolina's Black-White chronic absenteeism gap widened from 6.7 to 11.7 points after COVID, and every racial gap followed the same pattern.
Students in foster care in North Carolina graduated at 55.4% in 2024, more than 31 points below the state average. The gap has widened since 2018 even as overall graduation held steady.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools once led its peers in graduation rate. Eight years later, CMS trails Wake by 7 points and Guilford by nearly 8, with the state's largest cohort of non-graduates.
North Carolina's graduation rate climbed nearly 19 points in 11 years, one of the nation's most dramatic improvements. Then it stopped. The state hasn't gained a single point in seven years.
Not one of North Carolina's 112 districts with 500 or more students has returned to its pre-pandemic chronic absenteeism rate. Every one remains above its baseline.
North Carolina's chronic absenteeism rate dropped to 25% but the pace of improvement has more than halved, leaving 391,065 students missing a month of school.
