December 14, 2023
Greensboro, Ga. – The Greene County School System’s schools improved in nearly every area on the recently released College and Career Readiness Performance Index (CCRPI), posting both higher achievement gains and showing growth among subgroups of students.
The CCRPI was released on December 14, 2023 by the Georgia Department of Education, showing individual school and system performance, as well as providing a basis for comparison to the state as a whole.
Greene County Primary School, Carson Middle School, and Greene County High School all showed large gains in achievement in major content areas such as Language Arts and Math. GCPS’s overall score increased to 74.5 points, its highest ever and more than 10 points higher than the state score of 64.7. CMS and GCHS also made dramatic gains, in some cases showing increases by as much as eight points.
“Gains and losses are indicated by green and red arrows,” said Superintendent Chris Houston. “We are very excited to see green arrows across the board, in every school and in every subject. The improvements we are seeing show steady gains year after year, which means that we can sustain the momentum.”
Greene County High School also continued to outpace the state of Georgia in graduation rate. For 2023, GCHS had a graduation rate of 86 percent, a percentage point higher than the state average of 84.9 percent.
“I’m proud to see that we continue to do well in graduation rate, especially as we increase rigor to the curriculum at the high school to better prepare our students for life after high school,” Dr. Houston said.
In addition, the CCRPI also measures how groups of students at each school performed relative to the previous year. Called “Closing Gaps,” this measure looks at the performance of students with disabilities, students affected by poverty, and English Learner students, among others. GCPS and GCHS both had perfect scores of 100 in this area, as did CMS’s middle school program. The CMS elementary program posted a score of 89.5. These scores are between 30 and 50 points higher than state averages.
“The main lesson with Closing Gaps is that we want all children to perform well,” said Director of Teaching and Learning Crystal Parten. “This part of the CCRPI shows us that our students are all achieving and growing – we teach every student equally well.”
Another area of measure is “Progress,” which measures how much growth students demonstrate in English language arts and mathematics and how well English learners are progressing towards English language proficiency compared to academically-similar peers. Once again, GCPS led the way with a score of 96.3, the highest score of any school in the Greene County School System and more than 10 points higher than the state average of 85.8.
The final component measured by the state of Georgia is in the area of “Readiness,” which measures attendance, literacy, and preparation for college and career. Greene County Primary’s Readiness score was 85.6, the highest in the district and well above the state average of 82.3. GCPS had 82.5 percent of its students reading at or above grade level in third grade.
In addition, all schools were close to 100 percent in “Beyond the Core,” which measures the number of students taking courses such as fine arts, world languages, etc.
The latest CCRPI results demonstrated that the school system has both overcome the losses imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and also made serious gains in achievement and growth.
“Our teachers, parents, and students are working tirelessly to create a school system that serves all of the children of Greene County,” Dr. Houston said. “I think it’s clear that we are doing the right things, in spite of the limitations we presently have with our elementary program being in three different buildings. Once the new elementary school is completed, the sky will be the limit.”
CCRPI Reports may be accessed on the Georgia Department of Education website at https://ccrpi.gadoe.org.
