Effect of poverty still shows in state’s new ‘growth’ measure

One persistent criticism of judging schools based on test achievement has been that impoverished students typically score lower.

Georgia is trying to address that criticism with a new method of scoring, but the effects of poverty are proving persistent. Non-poor students in Fulton County, for instance, had higher growth in many subjects and grade levels than their impoverished peers, according to the new student “growth” results released by the Georgia Department of Education Thursday.

In math, for example, the median growth percentage for non-economically disadvantaged students was 58. That compares with 42 percent for economically disadvantaged students.