A&T Four Middle College, a public all-boys high school serving mostly Black and Hispanic boys that was recently profiled by The Assembly, posted huge gains in the state test results released last week.
Its composite score, reflecting end-of-course tests in all grades and subjects, showed 75% of students meeting state proficiency standards in 2025-26. That’s up 26 points from the previous year and 31.5 from 2021-22, the year after the pandemic school closures.
More than half of A&T Four’s students met the state’s College and Career Ready standard—a level higher than proficiency. Statewide, 22% of Black boys and 28% of Hispanic boys in public schools hit that mark.
The school’s biggest gains came in math: 71% met the proficiency standard in Math 1, and 78% did in Math 3. That’s up 46.8 and 60.8 points, respectively, since 2021-22.
In an interview, Principal Travis Seegars attributed the recent test score gains to an intensive summer program for incoming freshmen and the work of math teacher Eugene Grant, who previously worked as a math coach for the district.
Scores also improved in Guilford County and across the state. The district’s composite score was up 7.5 points, to 55%, since 2021-22. The state’s composite score was up 7.8 points, to 59%, over the same period.
Though Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools weathered a financial crisis of historic proportions last year, its students earned higher scores, too.
The district’s composite score rose 9.1 points since 2021-22 and 3.2 points since 2024-25, with 52% of students meeting state proficiency standards in the last school year.
Walkertown Middle School’s score on the growth index was in the top 1% in the state, six schools came off the low-performing list, and third-grade reading scores were the highest in a decade.
“We lived under a deep, dark cloud last year, but there were great things happening underneath,” Superintendent Don Phipps told the State Board of Education. Despite the uncertainty, layoffs, and other cuts brought on by the district’s $43.4 million debt, “teachers went into the classroom, and they took control of the one thing they had control over.”
Phipps and other district leaders thanked Catty Moore, a state board member who served as dWinston-Salem/Forsyth’s interim superintendent after the unprecedented debt was revealed.
Phipps said he was “eternally grateful” to Moore, who The Assembly profiled last year. “I can’t imagine the stress that you went through being there and seeing the cuts that had to be made. I told folks I felt like Catty had bought the ingredients, and then I had to put it together and make it happen, and I could have never done that without the ingredients and the right recipe.”
With the help of community foundations and other fundraising, the district’s debt was fully paid off last month.
