High-achieving Cobb high schools get some low marks for growth

Some traditionally high-performing high schools in Cobb County aren’t topping the charts in some categories under Georgia’s new “student growth model,” which measures how much students learn in a year compared with peers across the state.

The results are derived from year-to-year performance on Georgia’s Criterion Referenced Competency Tests and End of Course Tests and are for the 2012-13 school year. Change in a student’s test performance is compared against that of peers who had similar scores in the prior year.

In Cobb, where some high schools are used to all or nearly all students meeting or exceeding state standards, the growth rate was below 50 percent in certain subjects. At Lassiter High School, for instance, 99 percent of students met or exceeded standards in ninth grade literature and composition and American literature and composition and in Math II. The median growth percentages for those three classes, though, were 51, 45 and 54.5 respectively.