Families at Ardrey Kell, Ballantyne Ridge and other Ballantyne-area schools will get a fresh look at how their students performed when North Carolina releases annual school performance grades Wednesday, Sept. 2.

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) will present the results to the State Board of Education that morning, the Charlotte Observer reported. Each school receives a letter grade based on the share of students scoring proficient or better on end-of-grade exams administered in May.

The grades arrive after CMS posted gains in 2024-25. About 56% of CMS students scored proficient on state exams that year, up 3 percentage points and topping the statewide average of 55%. The number of schools earning an A or B rose by 7 percentage points, while schools receiving a D or F dropped by 11 percentage points.

CMS Superintendent Crystal Hill told reporters Aug. 18 there will be "a lot of excellent news to share" about the 2025-26 results.

Still, the district has not reached its pre-pandemic proficiency mark of 59.8%.

And a wild card looms. During spring 2026 testing, CMS experienced two days of platform and server disruptions that froze screens and kicked students out of exams. NCDPI told the Observer the problems were unique to CMS and did not affect other districts.

"Imagine being a child trying to concentrate on a long, difficult test while the broken technology is constantly disrupting their thinking," Justin Parmenter, a longtime teacher at CMS's South Academy of International Languages, told the Observer in May.

Beyond the glitches, WFAE reported that other factors could shape the 2025-26 numbers. Tens of thousands of student absences followed Border Patrol's arrival in fall 2025, and roughly two weeks of instruction were lost to severe winter weather.

Ballantyne-area schools posted high rankings heading into the release. Ardrey Kell, the largest school in CMS with more than 3,000 students, ranked No. 13 in North Carolina and No. 475 nationally in U.S. News & World Report's 2026 Best High Schools list. Three CMS high schools placed in the state's top 20.

Districtwide, CMS reported that 123 schools, or 70%, earned a grade of A, B or C in 2024-25. That was 21 more than the prior year. Reading proficiency in grades 3-8 climbed 5.2 percentage points, and math proficiency rose 4.6 points.

Not all trends pointed up. Third-grade reading and Math I scores dropped in 2024-25, matching statewide patterns, and graduation rates dipped below the state average, according to WFAE.

Individual school grades for Ardrey Kell, Ballantyne Ridge, Community House Middle, Elon Park, Polo Ridge, Endhaven and Hawk Ridge will not be available until NCDPI publishes the full data set Wednesday morning. The CMS Board of Education meets Sept. 8 at the Government Center.