Columbus public schools outperform Georgia’s other second-tier cities

This year’s state test scores show the Muscogee County School District, which comprises the public schools of Columbus, continues to outperform the other districts in Georgia’s second-tier cities, according to the Ledger-Enquirer’s analysis.

Compared to Bibb County in Macon, Chatham County in Savannah and Richmond County in Augusta, Muscogee has a better passing rate than all three on 26 of the 32 tests (81 percent) in the 2016 Georgia Milestones Assessment System, the same number in 2015, the first year the Georgia Milestones were administered.

Muscogee County outperformed the other three counties in science and social studies at every grade level tested, from third to eighth grade. It was also tops in math at every grade level except fourth grade, where Chatham County had a passing rate of 1 percent higher than Muscogee. In English language arts, Chatham had the top scores in fourth, sixth and eighth grade, while Muscogee was No. 1 in third, fifth and seventh grade.

Muscogee also produced more improvement on its passing rate than all the other second-tier cities on 14 of the tests.

“It says we’re focusing on the right things,” said Patrick Knopf, the district’s director of research, evaluation and assessment. “We all can see we have areas we need to work on, but when looking at comparable cities dealing with similar things, it affirms the things we’re working on.”

Bill Murphy, executive vice president for economic development at the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce, called the test results a testament to MCSD’s “outstanding teachers and the leadership of (superintendent) David Lewis and his administrative team. It’s proof positive that the direction he has set out is paying dividends.”

The Muscogee County School Board hired Lewis three years ago from Polk County, Fla., where he was an associate superintendent.

Murphy added that his job is easier when Columbus’ public schools outperform Georgia’s other second-tier cities.

“Quality education is among the top issues that we deal with, having a skilled labor force and a lot of other factors,” he said. “We are very pleased with the progress being reported and look forward to many more good things coming out of the Muscogee County School District.”

All of the districts in second-tier cities continued to score below the state average on all but one of the tests. For the second straight year, MCSD surpassed the state’s average passing rate in analytic geometry. Muscogee also closed the gap with the state on 12 tests: third-grade English language arts, science and social studies; fourth-grade science and social studies; fifth-grade english language arts, math, science and social studies; seventh-grade science; eighth-grade social studies; and high school biology. That’s an increase of one over what the Ledger-Enquirer reported earlier this week, which was based on preliminary data.

The passing rate is considered the percentage of students who scored at one of the two highest achievement levels out of the four designated in the assessment system.

In the elementary schools and middle schools, MCSD improved its passing rate on all four subjects in fifth grade and seventh grade, on three out of the four in third grade (remained the same in english language arts), and on two out of the four in fourth grade (declined in english language arts and math), sixth grade (declined in english language arts) and eighth grade (declined in math and science).

The state’s previous exams were the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, the End-of-Course Tests and the Georgia Writing Assessments. These were dropped two years ago in favor of the tougher Georgia Milestones, which assess students on the state’s more rigorous standards. The Georgia Milestones include open-ended questions in English language arts and math, requiring students to explain their answers. The assessment of writing is part of the English language arts test.

This story was originally published July 30, 2016 at 8:21 PM with the headline "Columbus public schools outperform Georgia’s other second-tier cities."