The school performance grades for the 2014-15 school year have been released by the State of Georgia. The highest performing school in Decatur County by the College and Career Ready Performance Index, CCRPI, was West Bainbridge Elementary with a score of 82.2, which equates to a B letter grade. The other four elementary each received a C on the new measuring metric.

John Johnson Elementary received a score of 72.5, Potter Street received a 70.8, Elcan King received a 79.6 and Jones-Wheat received a 73.4.

Hutto Middle School received two grades because the fifth grade students are measured on the elementary metric and the sixth grade students are measured on the middle school metric.

The fifth grade score was a 61.7 and the sixth grade score was 56.3, for an overall school grade of 58.9, which resulted in an F grade.

Bainbridge Middle school received a 70.9 score for a C and Bainbridge High School received a 73.3, also a C.

“The big thing is this year is not comparable to any other years because they changed the metrics,” incoming superintendent Tim Cochran said. “They changed the percentage of what the achievement counts and what the progress counts and you’ve got new tests that came in. Of those four years [of CCRPI], three years are of different measures whether it be different cut scores, different tests or different percentages that they count.”

For the 2013-14 school year the achievement score counted as 60-percent of the total CCRPI score and the progress score counted as 25-percent.

For the 2014-15 school year, which these scores reflect, the achievement score counted as 50-percent of the total CCRPI score and the progress score counted as 40-percent.

“Achievement decreased from 60-percent to 50-percent, so even if a school maintained achievement, if they did not have high progress, they would have also lost points based on the updated CCRPI weights,” Dr. April Aldridge. assistant superintendent of curriculum, said.

Because of the change in the metric the CCRPI scores for the 2014-15 school year are considered to be the baseline upon which future years will be judged.

Aldridge gave a detailed presentation about the scores to the Board of Education during the work session prior to Thursday evening’s board meeting.

“It appears from the data presented that we have an opportunity for improvement,” board member Keith Lyle said. “I am looking forward to seeing the progress we can make under the direction of Tim Cochran.”

Board member Bobby Barber Jr. added, “I don’t think the numbers are representative of where our schools are at. I’m not bent out of shape. Numbers of concern, but not numbers of doom and despair. I think our system is headed in a good direction.”

Incoming superintendent Tim Cochran, who was present at the meeting as an observer, said that to improve, the school system must identify its weaknesses and put interventions in place to fix them.

“I think the work that’s been going on has been good work to start giving a focus for school improvement,” Cochran said. “We’re going to continue that and I’ve kind of jumped on board to help push that, and I think with those raised expectations, I think you’ll see a change over time.”

The Decatur County School board has identified English and Language Arts as an area of weakness, which contributed to the low schools and especially the failing grade for Hutto Middle School.

They implemented changes to the English and Language Arts program for the 2015-16 school year and are implementing multiple new programs next school year.

“It is not just a Hutto Middle School issue,” Aldridge said. “What we have done as a district is we have looked at literacy, because our data over the course of three years has shown that our students are not growing as much as we need them to grow in literacy.”

According to Aldridge the expectation is that the scores for the 2015-16 school year will be released no earlier than October.