Last school year, Wakefield High School had a 95.2 percent graduation rate, putting the school in the top three percent in growth for the state of North Carolina. Through a variety of programs, the administration and teachers were able to help the 2023-2024 seniors achieve this milestone, and hope to continue to improve the graduation rate for many years to come. 

Over the past five years, the faculty at Wakefield have worked tirelessly to strengthen the school’s academic reputation. During the COVID-19 lockdown, attendance dropped and it was hard for teachers to create the best learning experience for students, which in turn impacted graduation rates. One of the strategies the faculty implemented to try and boost graduation rates after this setback was instructional alignment—examining a curriculum to make sure all learning objectives are met in the course. Principal Malik Bazzell finds this strategy particularly effective in boosting the academic success of students. 

“There are things that you have to learn in order to be considered college-ready or proficient in [for certain topics],” Bazzell said. “What I wanted to make sure teachers were doing was understanding what the standards meant as far as what you need to know, what you need to do and what concepts you should be able to understand.”

Another initiative the faculty added last year was PACK time—an hour-long period of time where students can sign up for extra help with certain classes, remediation or just a quiet study hall. Tony Calabria, an English teacher who has taught at Wakefield since the school’s founding, finds this time extremely beneficial to the students.

“One thing teachers and admin are doing really well is providing resources and opportunities for students,” Calabria said. “It’s really nice how students can use [PACK] time to meet with the teacher, get extra help or retake a test so they don’t have to miss any classroom work.”

In addition to providing PACK time activities for students, teachers make sure the students fully understand the material by doing item analyses. An item analysis is a process where teachers examine their student’s responses to each question on an assignment or test to see where people struggled the most. 

“When teachers do an item analysis of a test, and they see that there’s some common misperceptions or misunderstandings, we want them to go back and teach that,” Bazzell said. “We did a lot of focus on that in the last few years, where teachers were learning from the tests just as much as the students were.”

All of these methods have had a lasting impact on the student body and have helped create a positive learning environment. One student who has been particularly affected by this is Jeffrey Zheng, a senior at Wakefield who is taking four AP classes this year. As someone who prioritizes academics, he feels that these high graduation rates are a huge accomplishment for the school. 

“It makes me feel really proud that I’m going to a school that has a really high graduation rate,” Zheng said. “It makes me really proud that, when I graduate, I’ll be part of that really high graduation rate.”

Freshman Kylie Legacy-Berens feels this too; as another academically-driven student, she values the school’s academic reputation and hopes that the school can continue the trend of improved graduation rates. 

“It’s encouraging to know that most of the students graduate,” Legacy-Berens said. “I personally enjoy my classes so far, and although I’ve never gotten into school pride before, I appreciate my teachers and feel that they really do want to help give the students a better future.”

Going forward, Wakefield aspires to continue raising the graduation rates and hopes that this will advance the school’s reputation and thereby increase student enrollment. 

“Based on the scores from the 2023-2024 academic year, we were in the top three percentile,” Bazzell said. “My goal is to move us into the top one percentile, and then eventually be number one in the state of North Carolina. By focusing on instructional strategies and promoting critical thinking, I think we’ll get there.”