Georgia’s CCRPI is currently anchored to the Georgia Department of Education (DOE) 2019 Milestones assessments descriptions of Continent Mastery, Progress, and Closing Achievement Gaps. The first three CCRPI items listed by the AJC article author Ty Tagami here, inspiring this post.
OPINION, I have to write an opinion because I get a little literary in my expressed disbelief. However, Grades are correct as rounded and adjusted for continuity and understanding. Example: Grades between levels of 71.2 and 71.3 would be adjusted to a 70 and 71 to show the exit and entry point between levels.
Let’s start with invented scales to describe student accomplishment.
The first part of the invented scales is the multiple scale score scaling systems used, instead of the 0 to 100 scale. And instead of listing all of them here we will list only Fourth and Eighth Grade scale range’s for English Language Arts (ELA), and Math in honor of Georgia’s 2019 NAEP accomplishments:
Fourth Grade ELA scale score range 210 to 775
Fourth Grade Mathematics scale score range 270 to 715
Eighth Grade ELA scale score range 225 to 730
Eighth Grade Mathematics scale score range 275 to 755
The second part of the invented scales is their explicitly described use in achievement levels. While the description of what was done by GA DOE was not provided for the Third through Eighth Grades, it was provided when fulfilling a Freedom of Information Request made to Georgia’s Department of Education for the high school assessments. Here I will use one example from all of the assessments.
The Ninth Grade Literature and Composition scale score range was 220 to 735. And students who received a scale score of 220 through 474 were Level one Beginning Learners. And if the scale score was a 474, according to GA DOE, that was equivalent to a grade of 67.
And if that were all you knew, then you would not know what was wrong.
The 220 is the real-world equivalent of 0.0. Also, in the real world, the 474 is only 49 percent of the scale range and the equivalent of a grade of a 49. The difference between the kind of math you and I use to pay our bills and balance our checkbooks would make the difference between the grade of 67 and the grade of 49 to be an 18 point grade inflation.
The grade inflation is the kind of gift that hides how many children were left behind last year. It also hides the massive level of failure to properly educate children to even the most basic level of mastery. And since I brought up mastery, let’s skip Developing Learners and look at both proficient and distinguished learners score ranges as grades.
Achievement Level 3: Proficient Learner scale score range as grades, 59 to 69
Achievement Level 4: Distinguished Learner scale score range as grades, 71 to 100
Of last year’s Georgia Ninth Grade Literature and Composition Class of 2022, based on the milestones published results, 83.3 percent of the students were left behind.
13.4 percent left behind with rounded Grades ranging from, 0 to 49
25.9 percent left behind with rounded Grades ranging from, 50 to 59
44.0 percent left behind with rounded Grades ranging from, 60 to 69
It is kind of hard to have significant progress when a supermajority of students are left behind every year. And since no effort is reported showing the students left behind were brought up to speed or recovered from their demonstrated lack of mastery, it is hard to believe that GA DOE wants to own up to it, which brings up Georgia’s performance on last year’s NAEP.
In Georgia’s 2019 NAEP All Students category for both English and Reading domains, and Grades an estimated 91% plus of the students assessed had been left behind and failed to score, a scaled score equivalent grade of 70. You can read a detailed breakdown here.
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Related:
Georgia’s 2019 NAEP Performance as Grades Part 1.01 The Corrected and Upgraded Edition
Related soon to be revised and republished to include how many students were left behind:
2019 Georgia Milestones Elementary Scores as Grades
2019 Georgia Milestones Middle School Scores as Grades
2019 Georgia Milestones High School Scores as Grades
LINKS AND SOURCES USED:
Why Georgia is looking at another overhaul of report card for schools, By Ty Tagami, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2019 1101
[https://www.gadoe.org/External-Affairs-and-Policy/communications/Documents/Spring%202019%20EOG%20-%20State%20Level%20-%20All%20Grades.xlsx]
Georgia Milestones Assessment System End-of-Grade (EOG) Interpretive Guide for Score Reports for Spring and Summer 2019 For Use with Score Reports from Spring and Summer 2019 Administrations.Pdf
Spring 2019 EOC – State [https://www.gadoe.org/External-Affairs-and-Policy/communications/Documents/Spring%202019%20EOC%20-%20State%20Level.xlsx]
2019 End-of-Grade EOC Interpretive Guide for Score Reports for Spring and Summer [https://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/Assessment/Documents/Milestones/EOC-Resources/EOC_Score_Interpretation_Guide_2018-19.pdf]
NAEP Data Explorer https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ndecore/xplore/NDE
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