Elementary school scores drop in latest state report card

At-risk students earned fewer bonus points, state officials say.

The 2016 school report cards show a significant drop in scores at Georgia’s elementary schools, and state officials attribute it to the performance of at-risk groups, such as children from low-income households.

The results of the 2015-16 College and Career Ready Performance Index released Thursday show elementary schools on average scoring 71.7 points on the 0 to 110 point scale, a 4.3 point drop from the 2014-15 school year.

The index score is pulled together from a confusing welter of measures. The basic score is 100, but schools can also earn up to 10 bonus points for items such as at-risk students passing core classes like math.

This is perhaps why the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement applied its own readily-understood grade: any score under 60 earns an “F,” and 90 or over is an “A,” with the traditional letter grades applied at every 10-point interval.

With that, the state’s elementary schools are scored a “C.” So did the middle schools, which collectively earned 71.5 points, and the high schools, which earned 75.7. Both were within a few tenths of a point of their prior year scores.

The Georgia Department of Education, which assembles the index, attributed the drop to the performance of “economically disadvantaged” students, students with disabilities and students who are not fluent in English.

“These groups did not meet targets and therefore did not earn as many bonus points as last year,” agency spokesman Matt Cardoza said.

The complicated scheme awards points for everything from attendance rates to participation in accelerated classes like Advanced Placement. The most significant component, though, is performance on state standardized tests, known as the Milestones.

The results can be confusing.

For instance, the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology scored the highest in the state, earning 110.3 points though 110 is the maximum allowed.

And the state’s grading scale says it gives up to 50 points for achievement, but eight programs in seven schools, including the Gwinnett school, got more than 50 achievement points.

Also, an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows about 40 schools getting in excess of the maximum 10 bonus points.

Lithonia Middle School in DeKalb County had the largest proportional decline in metro Atlanta, losing 18.5 points from the prior year to arrive at 47.1 in 2015-16. More than half of the district’s 138 scores (schools report more than one score if they house a combination of elementary, middle or high schools) lost points.

District officials touted gains in the “progress” category, which measures the relative performance of simi- lar students. The district average was 36.7 points for high schools in 2015-16 compared with 36 points in 2014-15. But both elementary and middle schools saw single-digit declines in that category.

“I’m optimistic about the growth made by many of our schools, but the data reveals there is much work to be done,” Superintendent Steve Green said.