Asheville City Schools Superintendent Maggie Fehrman reported that the well-documented achievement gap between Black and white students closed slightly last year, while overall achievement for ACS students increased by 2.5% in 2023-24.

Asheville City Schools Superintendent Maggie Fehrman reported that the well-documented achievement gap between Black and white students closed slightly last year, while overall achievement for ACS students increased by 2.5% in 2023-24.
This third-year Asheville public charter school, whose student body is majority Black, has begun to successfully close an achievement gap between white and Black students that has consistently been an issue in Asheville City Schools since it earned a worst-in-the-state designation in 2017.
Just 11% of Black students in grades 3-8 at Asheville City Schools scored as proficient in math, with 13% proficient in reading. Rates were somewhat better in the county system, with 21% of Black pupils proficient in both subjects, but still fell well below those of white, Hispanic and Asian students.
“The African American community, in cooperation with UNC Asheville, has established a charter school, the P.E.A.K. Academy, which is specifically designed and staffed to give poor Black and other minority children a fair shot at a quality education.”
“If we’d had an inclusive process, there could have been a viable solution.”
“It does not escape me the amount of money that the city of Asheville funnels into the tourism industry here in Asheville, yet we do not have the money or funding to make the communities where these children live safe or enriching.”
“Hopefully, Mountain Xpress readers will not just see the problem but ask the question, ‘What can I do?’”
“Where is the evidence that this wholesale testing of children once a year enhances a child’s educational progress or improves our schooling system?”
“If the district is truly committed to fixing this alarming achievement gap between black and white students, it must work to make specific changes in its own treatment of black students.”
Speaking at the board’s April 30 budget work session, Chair Brownie Newman emphasized that education officials shouldn’t count on “automatic” growth of county support. “I think they should have to justify all of it,” he said.
ASHEVILLE, N.C.
“Oversight in this kind of system — where the board is appointed by a body with no regulatory authority, in a process closed to school employees, families and the community as a whole — is more than a little messed up. It is completely unaccountable, open to all kinds of corruption and anti-democratic, not to mention a lousy use of resources.”
“Certainly teacher bias in disciplinary actions should be mitigated, but I think we all know that the economic and social disparities between white and black families are closer to the root cause of these issues.”
“As we talked with people in community forums, we heard about places and events that are bringing people together, from public libraries to town commons to Friday night football games, and people wondered whether we could do more to build off those gathering places.”
“The Project POWER/AmeriCorps team member is a huge part of helping us serve our mission and a huge asset to the community,” says Kim Clark, operations manager for Asheville Museum of Science.
“The passionate and well-trained volunteer tutors at the Literacy Council’s Augustine Project and R2S fill a critical need within our community. They help students overcome barriers to educational success, building the child’s confidence alongside their reading, writing and spelling skills.”
“As an Augustine tutor, I believe, that were Read to Succeed and Augustine Project to collaborate with one another they would be able to better serve the children/families in our community.”
“Read to Succeed believes that learning to read proficiently early on is the best chance — perhaps the only chance — a child from an impoverished family has to rise out of poverty.”
At a rare joint meeting yesterday evening, Asheville City Council and the Asheville City School Board conferred on the achievement gap, mutual priorities and the thornier social issues that complicate both their jobs.
Provided snow doesn’t intervene, Asheville City Council is starting off the week with two back-to-back meetings: first with a rare joint meeting with the city school board tonight, Feb. 10, and its regular meeting Tuesday, Feb. 11.