How well are Columbus area schools performing since COVID? State releases scores
The state’s performance assessment of its public schools was released this week for the first time in three years, postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Comparing the Columbus area school districts in Muscogee, Harris and Chattahoochee counties to the Georgia average in the 28 categories on the 2022 College and Career Ready Performance Index, Muscogee scored above the state average in six categories, Harris County in all except the three for which it wasn’t eligible, and Chattahoochee County in eight (ineligible in four).
The Georgia Department of Education received a federal waiver to account for data limitations resulting from the pandemic, so the 2022 CCRPI doesn’t have an overall score for schools, districts and the state, which the CCRPI previously included. No CCRPI was released in 2020 and 2021, also due to the pandemic.
This year’s CCRPI report comprises scores for the following components:
Content Mastery, which measures how well students have learned the state’s core curriculum, based on the Georgia Milestones standardized tests in English language arts, math, science and social studies and the Georgia Alternate Assessment 2.0 for special-education students.
Readiness, which measures whether students are prepared for the next grade level, college or career. This indicator includes literacy and how well they have learned subjects beyond the core in:
- Fine arts, world languages and computer science in elementary school
- Those subjects plus physical education/health and career exploration in middle school
- Pathway completion (percentage of 12th-graders completing an advanced academic, career, technical, agricultural, fine arts or world language pathway) and accelerated enrollment (percentage of 12th-graders earning college credit via Dual Enrollment, Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate) in high school.
Although the Readiness component typically includes student attendance, the GaDOE received a federal waiver to remove this indicator in the 2022 CCRPI because of the pandemic.
Graduation Rate, applicable for only high schools and reported last month by the Ledger-Enquirer.
English Language Learners progress toward proficiency also is included in this year’s CCRPI. The two other CCRPI components, Progress and Closing Gaps, weren’t calculated for the 2022 report due to data limitations resulting from the pandemic. So the 2022 results will be used as a baseline for these indicators in subsequent years.
Here are the results for Columbus area school districts in Muscogee, Harris and Chattahoochee counties, compared to the state average, with scores on a 100-point scale.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Overall content mastery
- Harris 69.8
- Chattahoochee 68.1
- State average 63.0
- Muscogee 49.4
English language arts
- Harris 68.30
- Chattahoochee 63.10
- State average 60.92
- Muscogee 50.02
Math
- Harris 71.33
- Chattahoochee 70.09
- State average 65.78
- Muscogee 48.38
Science
- Chattahoochee 76.93
- Harris 69.23
- State average 60.35
- Muscogee 50.52
English Language Learners progress
- Muscogee 100.00+
- State average 96.95
- Chattahoochee NA (less than 15 students)
- Harris NA (less than 15 students)
Overall readiness
- Harris 76.1
- State average 71.8
- Chattahoochee 69.7
- Muscogee 68.5
Literacy
- Harris 52.42
- State average 46.67
- Chattahoochee 42.57
- Muscogee 38.36
Beyond the core
- Harris 99.70
- Muscogee 98.71
- State average 96.93
- Chattahoochee 96.88
MIDDLE SCHOOLS
Overall content mastery
- Harris 67.2
- State average 60.0
- Chattahoochee 49.0
- Muscogee 47.1
English language arts
- Harris 61.66
- State average 60.63
- Chattahoochee 55.64
- Muscogee 50.47
Math
- Harris 69.50
- State average 59.64
- Chattahoochee 53.60
- Muscogee 43.48
Science
- Harris 74.88
- State average 56.02
- Muscogee 46.11
- Chattahoochee 25.01
Social studies
- Harris 69.39
- State average 62.93
- Muscogee 49.12
- Chattahoochee 39.63
English Language Learners progress
- State average 56.46
- Muscogee 46.14
- Chattahoochee NA (less than 15 students)
- Harris NA (less than 15 students)
Overall readiness
- Harris 76.4
- State average 75.1
- Chattahoochee 74.0
- Muscogee 69.9
Literacy
- Harris 53.24
- State average 52.98
- Chattahoochee 49.74
- Muscogee 43.17
Beyond the core
- Harris 99.60
- Chattahoochee 98.18
- State average 97.23
- Muscogee 96.56
HIGH SCHOOLS
Overall content mastery
- Harris 77.8
- State average 64.7
- Muscogee 56.8
- Chattahoochee 52.4
American literature
- Harris 72.56
- State average 63.18
- Muscogee 61.38
- Chattahoochee 57.70
Algebra
- Harris 75.98
- State average 54.31
- Muscogee 40.17
- Chattahoochee NA (less than 15 students)
Biology
- Harris 77.02
- State average 66.36
- Muscogee 55.07
- Chattahoochee 52.25
U.S. history
- Harris 85.47
- State average 74.80
- Muscogee 70.58
- Chattahoochee 47.41
English Language Learners progress
- Muscogee 65.95
- State average 60.61
- Chattahoochee NA (less than 15 students)
- Harris NA (less than 15 students)
Overall readiness
- Harris 84.0
- Muscogee 74.2
- Chattahoochee 74.0
- State average 73.2
Literacy
- Harris 65.73
- State average 56.73
- Muscogee 55.44
- Chattahoochee 50.00
Accelerated enrollment
- Chattahoochee 100.00
- Harris 100.00
- State average 85.36
- Muscogee 84.45
Pathway completion
- Harris 86.34
- Muscogee 82.77
- State average 77.49
- Chattahoochee 71.95
Graduation rate
- Chattahoochee 96.8
- Muscogee 92.0
- Harris 91.7
- State average 84.7
LOCAL SCHOOL OFFICIALS REACT
The Ledger-Enquirer asked leaders of the school districts in Muscogee, Harris and Chattahoochee counties for their reaction to the CCRPI report. The L-E also asked what pleases them most about the results, what contributed to that success, what disappoints them most about the results, and how their district is trying to improve it.
Muscogee County
Muscogee County School District superintendent David Lewis noted the 2022 CCRPI report doesn’t include student growth in the calculations, as it did in previous years.
Nonetheless, MCSD used the data to “address early literacy skills to recapture the gains in reading and writing our schools were making in those areas prior to the pandemic,” he said.
MCSD also continued its Summer Learning Experience “reduce the learning loss typically seen between school years,” Lewis said.
The district’s Personalized Learning Initiative is designed to accelerate academic achievement by providing each student with a computer device for “any time, any place access to curriculum and related resources,” he said, “as well as free tutoring beyond the school day available through our community partner, the Chattahoochee Valley Library System.”
The pandemic affected students and their families to varying degrees, Lewis said, “ranging from inconvenience to devastation from the loss of a caregiver or their employment. As a result, attendance also varied widely between students and schools that significantly impacted learning outcomes during this period.”
Lewis commended the students, teachers and MCSD leaders for “working hard to recover from the impact of the pandemic, and we will continue to ensure they have the resources they need to accomplish this monumental effort. In addition, they will need the collective grace and encouragement of our supportive community during this time of recovery that many predict could take three to five years.”
Harris County
David Dennie, director of elementary curriculum and instruction for the Harris County School District, said on behalf of superintendent Roger Couch, “Both content mastery and readiness scores were above the state average at all of our schools with the exception of one indicator in one grade band.”
Dennie praised the “great work” of teachers and students for achieving at nearly pre-pandemic levels. The district used federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief money to hire more personnel, such as instructional coaches, Early Intervention Program teachers and Mutli-Tier Systems of Support coordinators.
“These results show we are on the right track,” he said.
Now, the goal is to boost HCSD’s performance to the state’s top 10% of school districts in all indicators, Dennie said. To that end, he said, HCSD’s literacy scores must improve at all grade levels.
“We are continuing to implement and refine our reading processes and strategies in K-2, along with targeting writing skills in K-12,” he said. “As we get further along in the process, our literacy scores will increase, which will in turn increase our readiness scores.”
Chattahoochee County
Chattahoochee County School District superintendent Kristie Brooks lauded the resilience the ChattCo family showed through the pandemic.
“Though we have endured significant challenges these past two years, and we continue to intervene with students who still are coping with long-term effects, including depression, isolation and an overwhelming sense of anxiety and struggles returning to schedules and routines,” she said, “our students and teachers worked tirelessly last year and persevered in spite of obstacles.”
Brooks isn’t satisfied with the CCRPI results, she said, “but we knew that our focus last year was to return students to a learning environment that prepared them to take on higher academic challenges.”
Overall, ChattCo’s CCRPI scores are among the highest in its region, she said, “but we know that we must continue to develop strategies and plans to ensure that our students are demonstrating their knowledge even on assessments that may not engage them or motivate them to perform at their best.”
While ChattCo’s content mastery was above the state average in elementary school, it was below in middle and high school.
“We are keenly aware that the most lagging scores were in content areas in which we suffered a terrible loss because of the COVID-related death of one of our teachers,” Brooks said. “In a smaller school, teachers teach multiple subjects and students. The loss of our teacher was felt by so many last year, and we knew our focus was healing our community.”
Another extenuating circumstance Brooks noted is last year’s decision to move more eighth-graders to a high-school science class so they could earn high-school credit earlier.
“Our parent and student stakeholder councils urged us to make this change, and we agree that it was the right decision,” she said. “However, as with any first-year implementation, there is a learning curve. Our 8th-grade students last year had not previously been exposed to the rigor of an End-of-Course test thus resulting in a first-year implementation of high school Physical Science for 8th grade with lower scores.”
The majority of ChattCo students in grades 6-12 showed partial proficiency (Level 2) in content mastery.
“For two years without high-stakes assessment, this tells us that with continued exposure to rigorous texts and robust in-class discussions paired with various writings our students are well on their way to receiving Level 3 and 4 scores,” Brooks said. “Most pleasing in terms of CCRPI scores is the equal representation of performance across subgroups. In ChattCo, we believe that all students can and will reach high levels of success, and our classrooms are designed to support all.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
