Georgia’s middle schools saw a four point drop on the state’s College and Career Ready Performance Index, also known as the CCRPI score. Elementary schools saw a slight drop and high schools saw an increase of almost two points.
In response, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and state school superintendent Richard Woods both called for a better way to measure student achievement in the state.
The Georgia Department of Education today released the 2019 scores Friday.
Statewide, the scores show an increase at the high school level, and decreases in elementary and middle school.
CCRPI Overall Scores – 2019 vs. 2018
| State | 2019 | 2018 |
| Elementary Schools | 77.1 | 77.8 |
| Middle Schools | 72.1 | 76.2 |
| High Schools | 77.0 | 75.3 |
| All Schools | 75.9 | 76.6 |
CCRPI scores are based on five separate components – Content Mastery, Progress, Closing Gaps, Readiness and, for high schools, Graduation Rate.
While the state averages for Content Mastery, Readiness, and Graduation Rate increased for elementary, middle, and high school, there were slight decreases in Progress scores, and larger decreases in the Closing Gaps component – which requires schools to meet elevated achievement targets for all subgroups.
Together, Kemp and Woods acknowledged that work still needs to be done to support students and improve student achievement, while expressing a desire to refine the CCRPI measurement to ensure it is a fair and stable measure that accurately captures school performance.
“I am a strong supporter of holding schools accountable for increased student achievement, but in a year when we’ve seen nearly across-the-board increases in national test scores and graduation rates as well as Georgia Milestones scores, seeing the CCRPI show a decrease instead raises concerns about the measurement used to determine school and district achievement,” Kemp said.
Woods emphasized his commitment to work with state and federal partners to reduce the weight of standardized test scores in the CCRPI and move toward a wider and deeper measurement of performance that reflects what he calls the true mission of K-12 public schools, preparing students for life.
“As we aim to lessen the number of high-stakes tests our students take, we need the weight of testing in CCRPI to reflect the same priorities,” Woods said. “Georgia’s parents, taxpayers, students, and educators deserve a fair measurement of performance that lifts up, rather than labels, our public schools. Working with Governor Kemp and the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, the time is right to make that shift.”
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