Restart Schools in North Carolina

Data from DPI reveal that the longer a school has had Restart Flexibility, the more likely they are to meet or exceed academic gain expectations, as defined by the State Board of Education. For instance, in the 2021–22 school year, 87% of schools that had Restart status for five years met or exceeded academic gain expectations, compared with 59% of schools that had Restart Flexibility for just one year. This positive impact also extended to Restart schools’ ability to recover from the pandemic, where Restart schools have outperformed their other continually low-performing school peers. Comparing to the prior year, Restart students experienced 5% and 4% more recovery than their non-Restart peers in Math and ELA, respectively.

A 2024 report on Restart Schools found that school administrators deployed 81 unique strategies to improve student outcomes. The most common strategy was to utilize budget flexibility (142 schools) with 75% of those using budget flexibility to hire additional staff. Importantly, the report found that strategies focused on improving student performance had a greater positive impact on student achievement and growth, as compared to strategies focused on student conduct and school staffing.

Figure 1: Effect of Research Strategies on Student Achievement and Growth (2023)

This report examined only the 2022–23 school year. In the years to come, it will be important to continue to track efforts to improve Restart School performance and, specifically, track the strategies that are most effective for students.