Dougherty School System CCRPI scores climb by 1.3 percent

ALBANY — The Dougherty County School System saw scores on the state’s College and Career Readiness Performance Index increase last school year, data released by the Georgia Department of Education late this week show.

Scores as a district climbed from 62.9 percent to 64.2 percent, despite the loss of instructional days and lingering effects to students and staff as the result of devastating storms that tore through the community in January.

“Thanks to the hard work of our students, staff and teachers, the majority of our schools are trending in the right direction,” Superintendent Ken Dyer said. “The data shows that we are continuing to create a culture of systemic excellence so that — regardless of where our kids go to school — students receive a high-quality education.”

The top performing school in the district remains Robert Cross Middle Magnet School, whose overall CCRPI score of 101.5 is among the highest in the state. All told, 14 of the county’s 21 schools showed improvement over the previous school year.

All of the school system’s three high schools showed improvement over the previous school year. At the middle school level, Robert Cross and Albany Middle saw their scores climb. At the elementary level, Martin Luther King Jr., Morningside, Northside, Radium Springs, Robert Harvey, Sherwood Acres, Turner and West Town all showed growth.

“It’s encouraging that our teachers and leaders at the school level are improving the quality of education for students across many schools in our district, despite all of the challenges they faced last year,” Ufot Inyang, associate superintendent for academic services, said. “We’ll continue to work with schools that struggled and provide them with the support they need to improve their standing.”

The district is taking a close look at the data to see where there are areas for continued improvement. Among its top priorities for the 2017-2018 school year is the creation of a systemic, coherent instructional development system to support teachers to improve student achievement.

Dyer said that strategy dovetails perfectly with his main goal of improving the system’s literacy rate, especially at the elementary school level.

Statewide, Georgia State School Superintendent Richard Woods said scores showed improvements across the board — in Georgia’s elementary, middle and high schools.

The state score for Georgia’s high schools was 77, up from 75.7 in 2016. The middle school score increased to 73, up from 71.5 in 2016, and the elementary school score increased to 72.9 (up from 71.7 in 2016). The overall state score is 75, an increase from 73.6 in 2016.

“These results point to the continued improvement taking place within Georgia’s public schools,” Woods said. “I have seen firsthand the efforts Georgia’s educators — particularly Georgia’s classroom teachers — have made to increase the opportunities our students receive, and I could not be more pleased to see increases across so many indicators of academic achievement, from CCRPI to the ACT to the Georgia Milestones assessments. With that said, I still believe the CCRPI does not fully capture the great work happening in our public schools.

“I’m confident that our proposed refinements to the measurement — as submitted in Georgia’s ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) state plan — will paint a more accurate picture of overall school quality.”