College and Career Readiness: Here is what Georgia schools scored in 2023

Miguel Legoas, Augusta Chronicle
·5 min read

The Georgia Department of Education's College and Career Ready Performance Index measures content mastery, college/career readiness, and other important factors in Georgia schools each year. Scores are awarded for each school and school district. Each school district is given three separate scores for how its elementary, middle and high schools performed in each category. So, for example, a school district's middle schools could achieve 80% in content mastery while its elementary schools get 90%.

The index for 2023 was recently released. Here's a look at which Georgia school districts were among the best and worst in each category. The rankings below are based on approximate data provided by the Georgia Department of Education and excludes state schools, state charter schools, the Department of Juvenile Justice, and schools with inconclusive figures.

College and Career Readiness: Here is what Augusta-area schools scored in 2023

Content Mastery

Content Mastery 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, math, science, and social studies on Georgia Milestones and Georgia Alternate Assessment 2.0.

Georgia's Content Mastery scores averaged 64.7% in elementary schools, 60.9% in middle schools, and 65% in high schools.

Here are the top 10 school performers in this category:

  • Oconee County's elementary, middle and high schools.

  • Jefferson City's elementary and high schools.

  • Bremen City's elementary and middle schools.

  • Buford City's elementary and middle schools.

  • City Schools of Decatur's elementary schools.

Here are the bottom 10:

  • Twiggs County's high schools.

  • Talbot County's elementary and high schools.

  • Hancock County's elementary, middle and high schools.

  • Quitman County's elementary and high schools.

  • Evans County's middle schools.

  • Dolly County's high schools.

Readiness

Readiness 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. High school indicators include literacy, student attendance, accelerated enrollment, pathway completion, and college and career readiness.

Georgia's Readiness scores averaged 82.3% in elementary schools, 82% in middle schools, and 71.4% in high schools.

Here are the top 10 performers in this category:

  • Buford City's elementary and middle schools.

  • Oconee County's elementary schools.

  • City Schools of Decatur's elementary and middle schools.

  • Jefferson City's elementary and middle schools.

  • Chickamauga City's high schools.

  • Bremen City's elementary and middle schools.

Here are the bottom 10:

  • Calhoun County's high schools.

  • Dooly County's high schools.

  • Macon County's high schools.

  • Hancock County's high schools.

  • Dublin City's high schools.

  • Baker County's high schools.

  • Richmond County's high schools.

  • Dalton Public Schools' high schools.

  • Miller County's high schools.

  • Turner County's high schools.

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Progress

Progress measures how much growth students demonstrate in English language arts and math and how well students are progressing towards English language proficiency. Language arts and math indicators utilize student growth percentiles to measure how much growth students demonstrated relative to academically-similar students on Georgia Milestones and categorical growth for students on Georgia Alternate Assessment 2.0. English language proficiency measures whether students are improving within a performance band or moving up to another performance band, thus moving towards English language proficiency.

Georgia's Progress scores averaged 85.8% in elementary schools, 80.8% in middle schools, and 79.2% in high schools.

Here are the top 10 performers in this category:

  • Calhoun County's high schools.

  • Terrell County's high schools.

  • Randolph County's high schools.

  • Butts County's high schools.

  • Wilkes County's high schools.

  • Ben Hill County's high schools.

  • Ware County's high schools.

  • Elbert County's high schools.

  • Lee County's high schools.

  • Social Circle City's elementary schools.

Here are the bottom 10:

  • Miller County's high schools.

  • Warren County's high schools.

  • Lincoln County's high schools.

  • Brantley County's high schools.

  • Glascock County's high schools.

  • Trion City's high schools.

  • Berrien County's high schools.

  • Dodge County's high schools.

  • Bremen City's high schools.

  • Banks County's high schools.

Closing Gaps

Closing Gaps sets the expectation that all students and all student subgroups make improvements in achievement rates. This component is based on CCRPI improvement targets for academic achievement, which are represented by improvement flags, and it provides an opportunity for schools to demonstrate the progress made in improving student performance among all student subgroups.

Georgia's Closing Gaps scores averaged 66.7% in elementary schools, 52.5% in middle schools, and 67.5% in high schools.

Here are the top 10 performers in this category:

  • Quitman County's elementary schools.

  • Turner County's middle schools.

  • Greene County's high schools.

  • Laurens County's high schools.

  • McDuffie County's high schools.

  • Dublin City's elementary schools.

  • Meriwether County's middle schools.

  • Decatur County's elementary schools.

  • Fannin County's middle schools.

  • Dodge County's middle schools.

Here are the bottom 10:

  • Dooly County's high schools.

  • Webster County's middle schools.

  • Quitman County's high schools.

  • Evans County's middle schools.

  • Echols County's elementary schools.

  • Lincoln County's elementary schools.

  • Terrell County's high schools.

  • Turner County's high schools.

  • Chickamauga City's middle schools.

  • Toombs County's middle schools.

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Graduation Rates

Graduation Rates measure whether students are graduating from high school with a regular diploma in four or five years. This component includes both the four- and five-year adjusted cohort graduation rates and is only applicable to high schools. Georgia's graduation rate averaged 84.9%.

Here are the top 10 performers in this category:

  • Webster County

  • Calhoun City

  • Lumpkin County

  • Trion City

  • Cook County

  • Sumter County

  • Wilkinson County

  • Charlton County

  • Habersham County

  • Oconee County

Here are the bottom 10:

  • Clarke County

  • DeKalb County

  • Richmond County

  • Randolph County

  • Jenkins County

  • Meriwether County

  • Hancock County

  • Baker County

  • Clayton County

  • Wilkes County

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Georgia school districts rankings for college readiness, graduation