By Erin Smith
The team of teachers, staff and students at Clarkton School of Discovery are celebrating a B grade on their school report card.
“We are ‘Boasting the B’,” said Clarkton School of Discovery Principal Stephanie Norris.
She said being located in rural North Carolina and being able to achieve a B grade is a testament to the dedication of her faculty, staff, students and parents working together. She said the growth composite score, which measures how much a student grows academically from the beginning of a school year to the end of the school year, was the deciding factor. The school exceeded growth with a growth index of 3.06. 
Norris said Clarkton School of Discovery had the most growth of any school in the county and she added it appears the school will be in the top 20 percent in the state in terms of the growth composite score. She said the State Department of Public Instruction will announce the top 20 schools in terms of growth in a few weeks.
“We do know that math is still a target area,” said Norris.
She said the focus of her staff and students all year last year was to work on building success as a team. Norris said she and her teachers sat down at the beginning of the 2016-17 academic year and reviewed the student test scores from third grade forward. Norris said they divided the students into groups who needed academic intervention or remediation based on those test scores. Norris said teachers worked with students during their elective classes building those skill sets they needed extra work on.
Norris said math skills are where the school is the weakest, as is the entire school district, and the faculty and staff at Clarkton School of Discovery are really focusing on math skills. She said the school district has implemented the New York Engaged Math curriculum. She said all of the school district math teachers are getting 20 day check points from the district office to help gauge where students are performing.
She said last year the school’s composite score was a 61 and this year it increased by 10 points to 71 percent. Norris said the work was achieved 100 percent by the teachers working with the students. She added parents were also dedicated to helping their students achieve or surpass the goals set by the state.
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