Some Dougherty County elementary schools’ CCRPI scores tumble

ALBANY — The Georgia Department of Education on Thursday released College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) scores, based on data from the 2015-16 school year. Dougherty County’s elementary schools’ scores took a tumble, with 10 of 14 county schools falling below the state’s passing rate of 60.

The state score for Georgia’s elementary schools was 71.7, with a score of 71.5 for middle schools, 75.7 for high schools, and an overall statewide score of 73.6.

Three DCSS elementary schools notched scores above the state average: International Studies Elementary Charter, Lake Park and Lincoln Magnet.

The Dougherty schools mirrored a statewide fall in elementary school numbers.

According to GaDOE officials, a significant year-to-year decrease was seen in the elementary school scores mostly due to bonus point opportunities not being met for economically disadvantaged students, English learners, and students with disabilities. Each year, schools can earn extra points if those student groups are meeting performance targets.

For the 2015-2016 school year, annually increasing targets were not met for these elementary student groups, even though subgroup performances increased in math, science, and social studies.

“These results point to the need for continued intensive focus on the foundations in early grades,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said. “However, I don’t believe the CCRPI captures all the great work happening in our schools. We have seen improvements and, in some cases, record results on the ACT, SAT and in graduation rates. Through the process of developing Georgia’s state plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act, we are evaluating what changes should be made to our accountability system to better measure the overall achievements of our schools.”

DCSS results for middle and high schools, however, remained fairly stable, with the five middle schools averaging 70 points, just .5 behind the state average of 70.5. The county’s four high schools came in at 61.3.

The CCRPI includes four main components: achievement, progress, achievement gap and challenge points. These components, encompassing multiple indicators, are combined for a total CCRPI score on a scale of 0 to 100, with a possibility of 10 additional points. The CCRPI also reports other information, such as the performance of student subgroups, school climate and financial efficiency status.

Here are the 2016 CCRPI scores for all 23 schools in the DCSS with 2015 scores in parenthesis:

Elementary Schools

Alice Coachman, 54.8 (52.6); International Studies, 87.8 (78.2); Jackson Heights, 45.8 (55.4); Lake Park, 86 (88.1); Lamar Reese, 54.6 (60.4); Lincoln, 76.3 (83.8); Live Oak, 55.9 (66.8); MLK, 55.5 (52.7); Morningside, 54.8 (49.3); Northside, 44.7 (53.3); Radium Springs, 57.6 (67.5); Sherwood, 50.2 (66.3); Turner 49.5 (57.1); West Town, 51.5 (67.8).

Middle Schools

Albany Middle, 65.3 (59.5), Merry Acres, 67.4 (75.4); Radium Springs 65.1 (53.8); Robert Cross, 94.2 (91.5); Southside, 53.9 (52.1).

High Schools

Albany High, 65.1 (75.9); Dougherty, 54.4 (64.3); Monroe 66.8 (60.9); Westover, 60.1 (63.2).

“We’re not making excuses, but if you remember this particular assessment (Georgia Milestones) for last school year, both the states and the districts waived a retest, so we did not take part in the full regimen of testing. Those results factor into the current results,” Dougherty Associate Superintendent for Academic Services Ufot Inyang said. “The results you are looking at is not an accurate reflection of what happened in Dougherty County.

“What you also can see by looking at the release from the state superintendent noting a ‘significant drop statewide in the elementary schools.’ But that doesn’t give us any comfort. We are not going to take solace in a statewide trend.”

Inyang acknowledged some of the drop in the county’s elementary scores were dramatic. West Town’s scores fell by 16.3 points from last year, Sherwood followed at 16.1 and Live Oak had a 10.9-point decrease.

“These numbers will fluctuate. We are having problems with high-quality teacher turnover, where we are losing some very strong , effective teachers to the metro Atlanta areas,” Inyang said. “They are paying very high signing bonuses to induce teachers to come to their district. It’s a real challenge for smaller districts like us.”

Inyang said the system would continue its quest for improvement.

“I’m not excited about this by no stretch of the imagination,” he said. “We have to keep working at it, doing what we believe is the right work to reach the levels we are looking for.”