Georgia releases data on public school performance
The federally mandated education report card for the 2022-23 school year in Georgia is now available, with one omission.
The various measures in the College and Career Ready Performance Index no longer roll up into a single score for each school. The Georgia Department of Education secured permission from the U.S. Department of Education to stop using the composite 0-100 measure — temporarily in the 2021-22 school year and then permanently in 2022-23.
Parents and other observers can still inspect performance in various categories, which are still scored on a 100-point scale. The index mostly uses scores on the state Milestones tests.
The categories are: “content mastery,” “progress,” “closing gaps,” “readiness” and “graduation rate.”
The latter is self-explanatory.
Content mastery uses test scores to determine whether students learned what they needed to in English, math, science and social studies. Progress is a measure of student “growth” in math and English, again using the tests but tracking change over time. Closing gaps refers to the performance of “subgroups,” meaning traditionally underperforming populations such as students in poverty and students with disabilities. Readiness indicates whether students are ready for the next grade or for college or a career.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some scores could not be calculated in 2022, so the only categories that allow for a comparison between then and 2023 are content mastery and graduation rate. The statewide average content mastery scores improved slightly, reaching 64.7 in elementary schools for a 1.7-point gain, 60.9 in middle schools for a 0.9-point gain and 65 in high schools for a 0.3-point gain.
The scores determine which schools land on the “CSI” and “TSI” lists, meriting supportive intervention by the state education department.
They also determine whether school districts have met the requirements of contracts that allow them to waive state education laws. Nearly every district in Georgia is either a charter or a waiver district. Those districts don’t have to comply with requirements, such as maximum student-teacher ratios, teacher training requirements or minimum days of schooling offered per year.
State school Superintendent Richard Woods said he sought to eliminate the single score because it “vastly oversimplified” reporting of school quality.
Allison Timberlake, the deputy state superintendent over testing and accountability, used alternative schools to illustrate his point. Those schools tend to score poorly overall since they enroll a relatively large share of troubled teens. But upon closer inspection, the performance in each category might show strengths and weaknesses.
“If you stop at a single score, you may not really understand what’s actually happening at the school — both the value that they’re bringing as well as areas where there is still work to be done,” Timberlake said.
About the Author
Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.
