For Immediate Release

Contact: Charles White

Director

CCPS Communications

Telephone: (770) 472-8437

May 4, 2011

CCPS students show dramatic improvement on

Georgia Grade 5 Writing Assessment

JONESBORO – Clayton County’s fifth grade students demonstrated a substantial improvement on the Georgia Grade 5 Writing Assessment. Overall, the district recorded a 9 percentage point increase in the number of students meeting or exceeding the standard. In 2010, 66 percent of students accomplished this feat. In 2011, that number grew to 75 percent.

Included in this improvement was an impressive increase in the performance of the district’s fifth-graders with special needs. Thirty percent of Clayton County’s special education students scored in the “meets standards” category. This represents an 8 percentage point increase in the percentage of special education students passing the test compared to 2010.

The district also narrowed the gap between itself and the state. In 2010, the county was seven percentage points behind the state numbers. That gap has been closed to four percentage points. It should also be noted that the district’s improvement outdistanced the state’s improvement by three percentage points. Eleven schools either equaled or exceeded the state result:

• Arnold ES                                 88 percent
• River’s Edge ES                       88 percent
• Kilpatrick ES                            87 percent
• Mount Zion ES                        87 percent
• McGarrah ES                           84 percent
• Oliver ES                                  84 percent
• Jackson ES                               81 percent
• Unidos Dual Language          81 percent
• Lake City ES                            80 percent
• Smith ES                                  80 percent
• Marshall ES                             79 percent

In all, 27 of the district’s 34 tested elementary schools demonstrated an increase in students meeting or exceeding the standard. Church Street ES led the way with a 27 percentage point improvement. Other substantial increases were reported by Northcutt ES (26 percentage points) and Kemp ES (21 percentage points).

It should also be noted that an increase in student performance was noted among all student groups:

• English Language Learners                 +7 percentage points
• Female Students                                  +9 percentage points
• Males Students                                     +8 percentage points
• Black Students                                       +8 percentage points
• Hispanic Students                                 +9 percentage points
• White Students                                    +14 percentage points
• Pacific Asian Students                          +8 percentage points
• Multi-Ethnic Students                          +5 percentage points

“I am pleased and encouraged with the results of this year’s fifth-grade writing assessment,” said Dr. Edmond Heatley, Superintendent. “I commend our students for keeping their focus on working hard and doing their best. I also commend our instructional staff for their effort and dedication to improving student academic achievement.”

“It is through this kind of commitment that we as a district will succeed in preparing our students to face the future,” he said. “These results validate our statement that GREAT things are happening in Clayton County Public Schools.”

About the test

This assessment is a test of students’ writing skills and consists of an evaluation of each student’s response to an assigned topic taken from a prompt bank representing three genres: narrative, informational, and persuasive. Students are allowed approximately 120 minutes to write their essay. The writing assessment is administered in one day with a make-up given the following day.

Trained independent evaluators at the Georgia Center for Assessment score each student’s writing to determine if the student “does not meet standards”, “meets standards” or “exceeds standards”. Students’ writing is assessed in four domains: ideas, organization, style, and conventions.