Some Dougherty County Schools see increase in student assessment scores

ALBANY — The Georgia Department of Education released the Georgia Milestones Assessment results from 2014-15 on Tuesday. The latest data pulled from the tool used to rate the effectiveness of schools across Georgia shows that the Dougherty County School System fared better than expected with the implementation of the new assessment tests.

In Dougherty County, several schools managed to increase their CCRPI (College and Career Readiness Performance Index), scores in spite of the new rigorous exam — some making double-digit gains during the 2014-15 assessments.

The data shows that nine DCSS schools showed improvement in their overall CCRPI scores with the biggest jumps coming from Albany High School and West Town Elementary School. Both schools improved their scores by more than 10 points over the previous year.

Dougherty High School and Monroe High School, both of which had been in danger of possible takeover under Gov. Nathan Deal’s ballot measure that heads to voters this November, have improved to the degree that it appears both schools will come off of the “Opportunity Schools” list, based on the 60 point CCRPI threshold originally announced by state officials.

Statewide, the average score for Georgia’s elementary schools was 76, with a score of 71.2 for middle schools, 75.8 for high schools, and an overall statewide score of 75.5.

In Dougherty County, the average score for elementary, middle and high schools was 65.1

“We’re far from where we need to be and we have a lot of room to grow, but some of our schools produced significant improvement over last year,” Superintendent Butch Mosely said. “We’re looking at the data and making sure those schools that didn’t show improvement get headed in the right direction.”

Ufot Inyang, associate superintendent for Academic Services, agreed.

“Some of our schools have made tremendous strides, but we’re still pushing, still working to get all of our schools doing creative and innovative things,” Inyang said.

The CCRPI uses the Georgia Milestones Assessment as one of its chief measurement tools when scoring the effectiveness of Georgia schools in grades 3-12. Currently in its second year of implementation, state officials had warned districts that the increased academic rigor of the test coupled with the fact that it was a new exam could cause test scores to drop. As a result, school officials were told to expect declining CCRPI scores.