Schools
Cherokee Schools Excel in New Performance Index
Cherokee County schools have exceeded the state averages on the College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) despite metrics that harm some schools.
Cherokee County schools have topped the state averages on the new College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI), despite some metrics that put schools with large populations of at-risk students at a disadvantage.
92 percent of county elementary schools earned a CCRPI score of 82 or better, with 42 percent of them earning scores of 90 or better. All middle schools exceeded the 82 mark, with 86 percent earning scores of 90 or better. 83 percent of high schools earned a CCRPI mark of 86 or better.
The new CCRPI system is meant to replace the No Child Left Behind Act's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) system, though the new system is not without its own flaws.
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According to a Cherokee County School District (CCSD) memo, a staff assessment of the CCRPI results examined each school's scores with the percentages of at-risk students in each school. The assessment showed a clear link between a higher percentage of at-risk students and lower CCRPI scores.
"Unfortunately, CCRPI's use of the same grading formula for these schools as is used to gauge schools with very small at-risk populations may lead some in the community to mistakenly think that these schools are not of the same outstanding quality as those in the School District's higher-income areas," the memo says.
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In light of these grading metrics, the school district has reached out to the Georgia Department of Education to discuss ways CCRPI metrics can be improved. Suggestions brought forth by CCSD include:
- Giving greater weight to the progress of at-risk students in reaching academic goals
- Adjusting the flag system to better indicate success by subgroups in meetng subgroup performance targets
- Ending the practice of placing the same struggling student into multiple subgroups; this practice inappropriately casts schools with large at-risk populations in a negative light
- Eliminating race-based performance targets
Below is a complete school-by-school breakdown of Woodstock's CCRPI 2011-12 pilot scores:
Elementary
SCHOOL GRADE K-5 SCORE GRADE 6 SCORE % OF ENGLISH LEARNERS % OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITES % OF ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED % OF ED/EL/SWD Arnold Mill Elementary School87.9 - 7 10 28 36 Bascomb Elementary School 97.8 - 2 11 14 20 Boston Elementary School 84.3 - 17 12 63 65 Carmel Elementary School 82.6 - 10 11 41 41 Chapman Intermediate School 88.3 90.3 4 10 37 43 Johnston Elementary School 90.8 - 8 10 36 43 Little River Elementary School 84.5 - 6 10 28 39 Mountain Road Elementary School 94.2 90 2 10 17 21 Woodstock Elementary School 95.1 - 9 11 52 55
Middle
SCHOOL GRADE 6-8 OR 7-8 % OF ENGLISH LEARNERS % OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITES % OF ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED % OF ED/EL/SWD E.T. Booth Middle School 95.7 1 9 31 36 Mill Creek Middle School 93.4 1 10 33 40 Woodstock Middle School 95 1 11 42 45High
SCHOOL GRADES 9-12 % OF ENGLISH LEARNERS % OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITES % OF ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED % OF ED/EL/SWD Etowah High School 87.5 1 9 26 32 River Ridge High School 88.2 1 12 29 36 Woodstock High School 86.2 1 10 28 34
Please see the attached memo for more information and data on the CCRPI pilot scores in Cherokee County.
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