by Georgia Charter Schools Association
By Nina Rubin
I’m no dummy, but it’s part of my job to read and digest Department of Education briefs, white papers, and reports in order to explain educational issues in ways that lay readers can easily understand. That’s why I sat down and tried to come to grips, on a “dummy” level, with something called CCRPI – Georgia’s new College and Career Ready Performance Index. CCRPI is one of those ed-jargon acronyms parents and Georgia voters will be hearing about more and more, and they should know what it means.
Lawmakers in the Georgia General Assembly have just given a green light to a constitutional amendment question that will let voters decide, on the November 2016 ballot, whether the state can intervene in turning around Georgia’s lowest- performing public schools.
If voters pass the amendment, beginning in 2016-17 an appointed superintendent, accountable to the Governor, could select up to 20 schools each year to become part of a state-run Opportunity School District (OSD). There would be no more than 100 schools in the OSD at any given time. Schools in the OSD could be closed, converted into charter schools, or reorganized and re-launched under new leadership. An Opportunity School would remain under the supervision of the OSD for a minimum of five consecutive years.
The “trigger” that could make a school eligible for intervention is CCRPI. Schools reporting CCRPI scores of 60 or lower (on a 100-point scale) for three consecutive years become possible candidates for state intervention.
What is CCRPI?
CCRPI is a state school accountability metric which replaces a previous federal system called Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), which was part of George W. Bush era education legislation, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education offered flexibility waivers allowing states to opt out of NCLB. Georgia chose that option in 2012. In opting out of the federal system, the state was required to develop its own metric.
CCRPI, which was developed as part of Georgia’s $400 Million Race to the Top award, was intended to be a more comprehensive assessment that would put a measurable focus not only on math and reading, but on all academic areas, and would also factor in student demographics and special populations with more subtlety. An overarching goal is to assess how well prepared students are for college and careers.
How CCRPI is different from AYP?
CCRPI moves schools away from the all or nothing, pass/fail mentality that repeatedly doomed schools with poor academic performance to the lowest rungs – especially those serving a high number of students in poverty.
The first CCRPI scores were released in 2013, based on 2012 data. The latest scores, for 2013-14, were lower for most schools than the previous year. It is not clear why the scores are trending lower, but it could be because of the activation of additional criteria for measurement, coupled with schools’ learning curve on how to earn more CCRPI points.
How is the CCRPI score derived?
There are three components to a school’s CCRPI score:
Achievement (60 points)
- Content mastery on Georgia’s new standardized test called Milestones (which replaces the CRCT
- Post-high school readiness and student progress on career pathways
- School’s graduation rate over four years, and adjusts for certain populations that might take five years to graduate
Progress (25 points) A more nuanced measure of student progress based on a students’ past academic history and compares students with “like” score histories.
Closing the Achievement Gap (15 points) Looks at the bottom 25% of school’s student population compared to state averages. High-performing schools may earn more on the Gap size than on Gap change. Lower-performing schools may earn more on change than on size.
Challenge Points (Up 10 points can be awarded for indicators that a school is going above and beyond targets in its efforts to address achievement). This is an opportunity for high-poverty districts, schools with many English Language Learners and/or students with learning disabilities to earn additional points. Beginning in 2013-2014, schools received ratings based on their financial efficiency and school climate, but these ratings were for the public’s information only and were not factored into the school’s overall CCRPI score. School climate is not measured in online schools, and it is not know yet whether alternate challenge points could be measured for virtual schools.
What are average CCRPI scores in Georgia?
In 2013-14, for the state as a whole, CCRPI average scores were:
- 72.7 for elementary schools
- 73.8 for middle schools
- 68.4 for high schools
How did your school score on CCRPI?
Find out here.
Where are the “chronically failing” schools?
There are 141 “chronically failing” schools in the state, concentrated in these locations.
- Atlanta (27)
- DeKalb County (26)
- Richmond County (21)
- Bibb County (14)
- Muscogee County (10).
The remaining schools are scattered around the state. The full list can be found here.
What do Charter School Leaders Say?
Matt Underwood, Executive Director of Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School (GCSA’s 2015 Charter School of the Year), posted a long analysis of CCRPI on his school blog, and you can read it here.
Chris Clemons, who leads Latin Academy Charter School, asserts that CCRPI is a better metric than AYP. “It incorporates all of the most important dimensions of a schools functioning. Schools should be measured on their student-based outcomes above all other measures. The extent to which factors are weighted against other factors always merits close attention, but I do not currently see any issues with CCRPI that could be said to miss the mark. CCRPI certainly broadens the scope of data points that are incorporated in understanding school performance and allows for more incisive analysis than AYP.”
Pataula Charter Academy’s Kylie Holley has written on this blog (What Data Collection Can Miss) about the disconnect between the rave reviews her school received for school climate when it earned AdvancED accreditation, and a less optimal school climate score from the state.
Learn more about CCRPI
For a data-driven critique of CCRPI, see Jarod Apperson’s article “Bending the
Curve; Why CCRPI Misleads Educators.”
For a look at how schools that could be targeted for takeover are working to improve their CCRPI scores, this story illuminates the strategies several Savannah-Chatham public schools are using. http://savannahnow.com/news/2015-04-04/savannahs-targeted-takeover-schools-focus-improvement
In a confusing twist, Neighbor Newspapers reported recently that a school with the lowest CCRPI score in Fulton County, had the highest School Climate score! McClarin Alternative School in College Park, which at 49.9 ranked the lowest in south Fulton schools’ 2013-14 CCRPI, came out on top in this month’s inaugural school climate ratings, based on information gathered during the same school year.
Nina Rubin is Director of Special Projects & Strategic Initiatives for the Georgia Charter Schools Association.
The views and opinions expressed on CharterConfidential are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency.
Georgia Charter Schools Association
The Georgia Charter Schools Association (GCSA) is the membership organization for Georgia’s charter school operators and petitioners, established in 2001. Our mission is to be an effective advocate and service provider for all charter public schools in Georgia.
