SALISBURY — There’s good news outside Rowan-Salisbury Schools, too.

Kannapolis City Schools this year pulled itself up by its bootstraps and, for the first time in three years, will not be rated a low-performing school district, according to testing results released statewide Wednesday.

While four of the Kannapolis district’s eight schools received a D grade, one of them exceeded growth, thereby escaping a low-performing designation. Only one other school exceeded growth.

Kannapolis City Schools had no A, B or F schools.

“This is a good day for Kannapolis City Schools and our community.” said Superintendent Chip Buckwell. “It shows that really hard work by talented educators can produce great results for kids. We’re still not where we want to be in Kannapolis City Schools, but today’s results show that we are absolutely doing the right things to raise achievement and help our kids succeed.

“I’m so proud of our staff for all they have done to add opportunities for our students and do the right thing for kids. I know we’ll see even more gains in the future.”

Gray Stone Day School in Misenheimer received a B rating and a school performance grade of 74. The school did not meet growth expectations.

N.C. Connections Academy, a local virtual charter school, received a D, a school performance grade of 52 and did not meet growth expectations.

Kannapolis Charter Academy improved its performance grade from a D last year to a C. The school had a performance grade score of 61 and exceeded growth expectations.

This year is the first that states have had to follow guidelines instated by the Every Student Succeeds Act. The statute allows districts to further break down and measure student subgroups, including ethnicity and socioeconomic status. The results were included in the test score release presented to the State Board of Education.

The statute also mandated that the state create and follow long-term goals in which progress can be measured annually. The state’s goals include: Reading and mathematics assessments in grades three through eight, reading assessments in grade 10, mathematics assessments in grade 11, a four-year cohort graduation rate and English learner progress.

Contact reporter Rebecca Rider at 704-797-4264.