Clarke County School District -

The Clarke County School District made several gains in increasing content mastery, closing achievement gaps between student subgroups, and preparing students for postsecondary success during the 2023-24 school year, according to College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) data released today by the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE). However, the district remains focused on expanding effective instructional practices and implementing support measures across all grade levels to continue addressing areas of concern. 

CCRPI is Georgia’s statewide accountability system in compliance with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. Scores on a 0-100 scale are reported at the elementary, middle, and high school levels for each of the five individual CCRPI components. Those components include:

• Content Mastery, which addresses whether students are achieving at the level necessary to be prepared for the next grade, college, or career. It includes achievement scores in English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies based on student performance on the Georgia Milestones Assessment System and the Georgia Alternate Assessment 2.0.

• Progress, which addresses how much growth students are demonstrating relative to academically similar students.

• Closing Gaps, which sets the expectation that all students and student subgroups continue to make improvements and sustain high levels of achievement once a certain threshold is attained.

• Readiness, which measures whether students are participating in activities preparing them for and demonstrating readiness for the next level, college, or career. The indicators for elementary and middle schools include literacy, student attendance, and “Beyond the Core” (subject areas outside of English language arts, math, science, and social studies). High school indicators include literacy, student attendance, accelerated course enrollment (such as Advanced Placement classes), pathway completion, and college and career readiness.

• Graduation Rates (high school only), which addresses whether students are graduating with a regular high school diploma in four or five years. 

While GaDOE no longer includes an overall CCRPI score for schools, districts, or the state, state legislation passed in 2024 requires the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) to calculate a single score for schools and districts, and for GaDOE and local school districts to publish these scores online. 

Using GOSA’s calculations, 13 of CCSD’s 21 schools (10 of 14 elementary schools, Clarke and Burney-Harris-Lyons middle schools, and Clarke Central High School) saw increases in their overall CCRPI score between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years. Barnett Shoals Elementary increased its score 16.5 points to 80.3, while Clarke Middle (up 19 points to 80.1), Whitehead Road Elementary (up 14 points to 79.7), and Whit Davis Elementary (up nearly 25 points to 71) had double-digit gains. Johnnie Lay Burks and Barrow elementary schools also scored above 80 with Burks increasing nearly 5 points to 85.9 and Barrow increasing 8 points to 83.4. Burks, Barrow, Clarke Middle, and Clarke Central scored above the state averages.

Additionally, 14 schools (11 elementary schools, Clarke Middle, BHL Middle, and Clarke Central) have increased their score since 2018-19, the last full school year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Whitehead Road is up 18 points, Clarke Middle has increased its score by 17 points, and Barrow has increased by 13 points since 2019 while Fowler Drive Elementary has improved by 19 points to 74.2.

“I am very proud of the progress our students, teachers, staff, and district leaders have made in terms of improving student achievement and outcomes,” said Dr. Robbie Hooker, CCSD Superintendent. “We still have work to do, but I am confident we are on the right path and doing the work that needs to be done to move our students forward.”

Below is a summary of CCSD’s overall CCRPI performance and its scores across all five individual components for the 2023-24 school year compared with its performances in the 2022-23 and 2018-19 school years and the state averages for those same years. Scores are on a 0 to 100 scale. 

Overall CCRPI Scores (calculated by GOSA)

• CCSD elementary schools as a whole had a 6-point increase in their overall CCRPI score and reflected improvement in all four measured individual components, while middle schools had improvement in three of the four. Elementary and middle school overall scores are also above 2019 pre-pandemic levels, indicating positive results from academic recovery efforts. Middle schools, however, remain CCSD’s lowest-scoring schools, and the district will continue to focus on strong middle school instruction to improve academic performance.

• Overall CCSD high school scores decreased despite gains in graduation rates due to flat scores in academic achievement, progress, and closing gaps. The overall high school score remains below 2019, emphasizing the need for continued recovery efforts at the high school level.

• CCSD’s overall scores remain below the state averages.

  
  

Content Mastery

• CCSD elementary schools had improved performance in English language arts and math last school year, and gains in math helped boost the district above its 2019 overall elementary school score. Decreases in ELA and science from 2019 emphasize the need for continued recovery efforts. 

• CCSD middle schools had improved student performance in ELA, math and social studies last year, while science scores were down. Only social studies performance has increased since 2019. 

• High schools remained consistent, reflecting flat performance in all areas but math, which increased 5 points. Overall content mastery scores have increased since 2019; however, there has been a 14.2-point drop in ELA content mastery.  

  
  

Progress

• CCSD elementary and middle schools had significant growth among historically underperforming subgroups, specifically Hispanic students and English Learners. The district’s 7.6-point overall increase over 2019 reflects ongoing positive efforts to increase content mastery where the district underperforms. Progress has been particularly strong in math with an 86.4 score in 2023-24, nearly 18 points above 2019. 

• The district’s middle school score is nearly 12 points higher than 2019, showing a focus on accelerating growth to significantly increase content mastery where the the district historically underperforms. ELA grew 14 points and math grew 13 points from 2019 to 2024. 

• The district’s high school number has moved slightly above the 2019 score, reflecting positive results from ongoing efforts to regain pre-pandemic growth levels. However, growth among English Learners is well below district averages, indicating a need to focus on high school language acquisition. 

  
  

Closing Gaps

• The Closing Gaps component is not comparable between 2023 and 2024 because the 2024 component does not include mathematics scores, since math assessments were updated to align with GaDOE’s new K-12 Mathematics Standards first implemented during the 2023-24 school year.

• CCSD elementary schools have made meaningful strides in the last year and over the past five years in narrowing achievement gaps and addressing subgroup disparities. Hispanic students and students with disabilities in particular had strong results in science last school year.

• Many middle school student groups made progress in ELA; however, science and social studies were areas of concern, particularly among Black and Hispanic students as well as English Learners. 

• Disparities at the high school level were pronounced for English Learners and students with disabilities in all subject areas and for Black students in Algebra and Biology. 

  
  

Readiness

• CCSD elementary and middle schools had slight increases last school year, showing incremental improvement in student preparedness for college and careers. Scores since 2019 have been helped by gains in reading and beyond-the-core course participation; however, attendance remains a concern and is down more than 10 points since 2019. Only 77% of elementary school students and 74% of middle school students attended school for 90% or more of the days they were enrolled during the school year. 

• Dual Enrollment, Advanced Placement, Pathway Completion, and College and Career Readiness indicators were up slightly from 2023 at the high school level, but there is still a need for sustained interventions to bolster readiness indicators such as attendance and literacy. High school attendance is down nearly 20 points from pre-pandemic levels and was down last school year. 

Graduation Rates

• CCSD’s overall graduation rate improved from 77% to 80.4%, and its four-year rate jumped 5.7 points to 81.1%, reflecting positive district-wide efforts to support on-time graduation. Cedar Shoals High had a nearly 12-point increase in its four-year rate to 81.9% and a 7.4-point jump in its overall rate to 78.9%. Clarke Central High’s four-year rate increased nearly 3 points to 83.1%, while its overall rate also ticked up 1.7 points to 83%. CCSD also exceeded its target four-year rates last school year across multiple demographics – including white students (91.8%), Black students (77.2%), Hispanic students (80.2%), economically disadvantaged students (81.1%), and students with disabilities (61.3%). 

• The district’s overall rate remains below the 2019 mark of 82.6%, emphasizing a need for continued focus on post-pandemic credit attainment.

  
  

Complete 2024 CCRPI data for CCSD and the state are available here.