Chapel Hill Review

In the 2022-23 school year, 645 out of 1,431 Orange County junior students taking the Math portion of the ACT met the college readiness benchmark, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

In the 2022-23 school year, Math scores among the county districts dropped to 45.1%, a decline of 1.8% from the previous school year when 46.9% of students were considered ready for post-secondary education.

Countywide, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools students stood out in Math, with almost 56% of the 11th-graders hitting the ACT benchmark in the 2022-23 school year (515). Meanwhile, students from Orange County Schools struggled the most on the Math portion, and only 25.4% were considered ready for college.

For comparison, North Carolina saw 23.5% of its students meeting or exceeding the ACT benchmarks for Math during this year.

Beyond Math, 63.8% of Orange County 11th-graders met English college readiness benchmarks in the 2022-23 school year. On Reading, 55% of students were ready for college, and Science scores revealed 50.7% of juniors also met the standard. Overall, Orange County had an average college readiness of 38.9% across all ACT areas.

North Carolina's education system is still grappling with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the 2022-23 ACT results, college readiness among North Carolina students falls short of pre-pandemic levels, with only 17.1% meeting benchmarks.

Additionally, the state's performance is lagging behind the national average, which currently stands at 21%.

District	Met or Exceeded Benchmarks (2021-22)	Met or Exceeded Benchmarks (2022-23)
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools	54.1%	56%
Orange County Schools	35.1%	25.4%
Orange County	46.9%	45.1%