The state Department of Education released the results of its new school grading system Tuesday, more than a year after students took the new “Milestones” tests that are the basis for most of each score.
The results, district by district, look a lot like scores in past years. Oconee County and Jefferson City school systems posted scores well above the state averages; Madison, Commerce and Oglethorpe county systems were also above the state average; Jackson and Barrow were very close to the state average; and Clarke, with its high poverty rates, was below the state average.
The overall state average CCRPI was 75.5 points, on a scale that goes up to 100, counting 10 bonus points based on factors such as student “growth” (in test scores) for certain groups, such as English language learners.
Oconee County had the highest overall CCRPI of area school districts, at 89.4, followed closely by Jefferson, at 87.2.
Clarke had some of the lowest-scoring individual schools in the region, but also had the second highest-scoring elementary school — Chase Street Elementary, whose CCRPI score was 92.2.
In Oconee County, Malcom Bridge scored 93.8 points on the state scale, the highest of any Athens-area elementary school, while High Shoals Elementary scored the same as Chase Street, 92.2
The lowest score of any school in the region was at Maysville Elementary, 51.3.
The highest score of any area school was Jefferson High School, at 95.6, just slightly higher than North Oconee High School, at 95.5.
Along with the schools’ CCRPI scores, the state also released school-level results for specific tests, such as the reading and math tests students take in each grade. In some subjects, are supposed to make a passing grade on them in order to be promoted from 3rd, 5th and 8th grade. In high school, results on the Milestones are supposed to count 20 percent of students’ final grades — but not this year.
The Georgia Department of Education decreed last year that the new Milestones wouldn’t count for students the first year.
Clarke County School Superintendent Philip Lanoue said the test scores will help in planning.
“CCRPI is one indicator we use in planning, and it provides us with valuable information – but we assess our work and results using multiple metrics beyond test scores,” he said in a statement. “I have great confidence in our teachers and the work they are doing in tirelessly supporting the varied needs of children — academically, socially, emotionally and physically.”
School officials were drilling down into the numbers Tuesday, and Jefferson City School Superintendent John Jackson said he was sure he’d be able to glean some useful information from the state’s numbers.
But like many educators, he has serious reservations about the state’s ever-changing testing regime, and questions whether it’s too complicated for anyone to really understand.
It seems as if every time there’s a new state or federal administration, the new one wants to install a new educational system, he said.
“The process becomes the most important thing, and the objective just sort of flies out the window. I think if they would put together a fundamental program that everyone could understand and everyone could implement, they’d be doing themselves a favor. But it always seems to be the case that the new one is more complicated,” he said. “We all want good schools, but if the plan is so complicated you don’t understand it, and then you can’t implement it, what good are you doing?
Parts of that process will change again later this year, however.
New state legislation Gov. Nathan Deal signed into law Tuesday will reduce the amount that test scores count in evaluating teachers. Under a previous law that went into effect with the new Milestones, students’ test scores were to have counted for 50 percent of a teacher’s annual evaluation, and 70 percent of a principal’s evaluation. But as of July 1, the test scores’ weight will be reduced to 30 percent for teachers and 50 percent for principals.
Georgia students will also see a slight reduction in to the number of standardized tests they have to take.
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