Clayton County schools average scores on the just-released 2017 state report card lagged the state averages, but showed improvements from last year.
The College and Career Ready Performance Index ranks schools on a 100-point scale from best to worst based on a host of measures, such as test pass rates, while also taking into account issues such as poverty rates.
The report card’s results give administrators, teachers and parents consistent, if not always well understood, yearly guideposts to measure their school’s success or failure.
Georgia’s 2017 average points for elementary schools is 73.9 and Clayton’s is 69.1, but the county score is up nearly 6 points from last year.
For middle schools, the state average was 73.8 points, Clayton posted an average of 68.1, which is up about four points from last year.
Those improvements helped push Clayton’s growth rate to about double the state’s average growth rate.
High schools in the state earned 77.6 points, compared to Clayton’s 64.8. The county score dropped about half a point from 65.4 last year.
Many schools expressed happiness at improvements in sections, but readers need to be careful because of changes from last year. That's because a 2016 state law mandated a reduction in the number of tests. Students in fewer grades took standardized state tests in social studies and science as a result of Senate Bill 364, so points for "growth" -- student gains over time -- on the tests that were given in those subjects did not influence the report card. You can read more about that here.
The bottom five percent of lowest-performing schools will be subject to intervention by the state, which could cost teachers their jobs or see school administrations changed.
We’ll bring you more information later in the day.
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