--- title: Graduation, proficiency rates rise in North Carolina description:

(The Center Square) – Four-year cohort graduation of North Carolina’s public school students for 2025-26 is 88.8%, up from the previous year’s record 87.8%.

canonical_url: https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/north-carolina-news/graduation-proficiency-rates-rise-in-north-carolina language: en-US date: 2026-09-08T14:00:01Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/north-carolina-news/graduation-proficiency-rates-rise-in-north-carolina. markdown-tokens: 886 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/north-carolina-news/graduation-proficiency-rates-rise-in-north-carolina. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. ![](https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/images/joomgrabber/2026-09/3dc19f7961.jpeg) (The Center Square) – Four-year cohort graduation of North Carolina’s public school students for 2025-26 is 88.8%, up from the previous year’s record 87.8%. Seeking to reach a “Best in Nation Measure” as identified in the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s strategic plan, the new figure for the Old North State trails previous year’s rates for at least nine of 16 states in the U.S. Census Bureau-defined South. “These academic achievement results are a testament to the incredible work happening across North Carolina’s public schools,” first-term Democratic Superintendent Mo Green said. “While I am pleased to see these results trending positively, including our highest graduation rate ever, I look forward to continued progress as we aim to achieve educational excellence for all North Carolina public school students and become the best public education system in the nation.” North Carolina is among the first, if not the first, to announce 2025-26 rates. In 2024-25, for the South, this new figure trails Kentucky (93.6%), West Virginia (92.8%), Virginia (92.7%), Tennessee (92.3%), Florida (92.2%), Alabama (91.6%), Delaware (91.4%), Mississippi (90.8%) and Arkansas (90.1%). The U.S. Census Bureau breaks the South into Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee in the East South Central; Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia in the South Atlantic; and Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas in the West South Central. End of grade and end of course assessments are the highest in three years, hitting 59.2% of students being proficient. Grade level proficiency on the two exams was the highest in three years for 14 of 15 reading and math tests. Dr. Michael Maher, chief accountability officer for the Department of Public Instruction, said in part, “It is promising to see this continued improvement in student achievement in the 2025-26 accountability results. From graduation rates to EOG and EOC scores and school performance grades, students and educators across North Carolina should be proud of this progress. At the same time, these results alone do not capture the full breadth of the important work happening in our public schools. The work of the Accountability Task Force gives us an opportunity to consider additional measures that, alongside academic achievement, can provide a more complete picture of student progress and how well schools are preparing students for what comes next.” Content Original Link: [https://www.thecentersquare.com/north\_carolina/article\_7bc32234-71da-4fb6-9819-540e5c8872e4.html?a](https://www.thecentersquare.com/north_carolina/article_7bc32234-71da-4fb6-9819-540e5c8872e4.html?a) September 02, 2026 Hits: 102