There has been a lot of discussion about the performance of our Fayette County Public Schools in this newspaper and elsewhere. There has been suggestion that our schools are either falling into the pack or are in serious decline.
The principle source of this information is the CCPRI (College & Career Ready Performance Index) which is a relatively new measure in Georgia. These scores are not just focused on state-mandated tests, but also considers “climate,” student growth, CTAE (career readiness) pathway completion and attendance, all of which is presumed to look at the school and system as a whole.
Some argue this measure provides the public with a better understanding how our schools are performing in a more comprehensive manner than the pass/fail system previously in place under AYP.
I disagree. The measure of how education is delivered is principally testing. Even in the classroom setting, a student’s performance on test scores and other classwork solely determines the grade in a class. The “climate” may impact performance but it is not a result. Whether or not it makes us feel good, school is a pass-fail business.
There are three main categories to the CCRPI, Achievement, Progress, and Closing the Achievement Gap. Schools-systems can earn extra points for things like innovation and “raising the bar.”
The “Achievement” category measures mastery through testing, readiness for career or next level school and graduation rate. When looking at this measure in isolation, the excellent quality Fayette County Public Schools are number 3 in the state, discounting small city school systems.
While neighboring systems have improved, they are not near the performance of our great schools. Further it is important to note that the “Achievement” category was reduced in weight from 70 percent to 60 percent of total score, which lowers Fayette’s overall score and allows lower performing systems to achieve a higher score not on educational results but rather “progress.”
The progress score is calculated based on the percentage of a school’s students demonstrating typical or high growth via their Student Growth Percentiles versus students with similar prior achievement and is worth 30 percent of total score.
It is important to note that some of the neighboring systems do score better in this measure, but a reasonable person should ask if you are already high performing, how much growth can there be?
The third major measure is closing the “Achievement Gap.” The Achievement Gap score assigns points to schools for their progress in closing or having small achievement gaps on state tests between schools’ lowest 25 percent of achievers and the state average. Again, when you are already materially outperforming the state average, how much gap closure can you have?
Unfortunately, these scores cannot be used in a direct comparison between 2014 and 2015 CCRPI averages due to year over year tweaks in the assessment system, changes in weights and recalculated performance targets, according to the state of Georgia Department of Education.
Overall it would seem that while the CCRPI does allow improving systems to claim some parity with our excellent Fayette County schools, it masks the cold hard facts that overall Georgia public education has a lot of work to do overall. This is not to argue we can’t be better in Fayette but rather to recognize the continuing results delivered by our students, teachers, and staff.
The good news is we are not in decline in educating the children of Fayette County. The better news is we still have room for improvement.
Neil Sullivan
Peachtree City, Ga.
