The Clarke County School District (CCSD) saw improvement in its 2023 College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) scores — while achieving significant gains in Progress and Closing Gaps — and remains focused on increasing its performance across all components to further its mission of empowering all students to fulfill their potential. 

CCRPI is Georgia’s statewide accountability system in compliance with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. The Georgia Department of Education today released 2023 scores for all school systems in the state, the first time in four years that it has released a complete set of CCRPI data due to pandemic-related limitations for 2020 through 2022. In a change from previous years, CCRPI scores are now reported at elementary, middle, and high school levels for each individual component, which include:

• Content Mastery, which 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, mathematics, science, and social studies based on student performance on the Georgia Milestones Assessment System and the Georgia Alternate Assessment 2.0.

• Progress, which addresses how much growth students are demonstrating relative to academically similar students.

• Closing Gaps, which sets the expectation that all students and student subgroups continue to make improvements and sustain high levels of achievement once a certain threshold is attained.

• Readiness, which 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” (subject areas outside of English language arts, math, science, and social studies). High school indicators include literacy, student attendance, accelerated enrollment, pathway completion, and college and career readiness.

• Graduation Rates, which addresses whether students are graduating with a regular high school diploma in four or five years. 

Even taking into account changes in the way components are calculated that were favorable to school systems, CCSD made gains on CCRPI scores when comparing 2023 to 2019. In addition, using the old single-score system, 13 of the district’s 21 schools increased their single score from 2019 to 2023. 

"These CCRPI results are a key indicator that our district is headed in the right direction," said Dr. Robbie Hooker, CCSD Superintendent. "I continue to be proud of the work taking place in our schools and am confident that, with the consistent implementation of the research-based changes to our instructional approaches, we will continue to improve."

Below is a key summary of CCSD’s 2023 CCRPI performance across all five components. Scores are based on a 0 to 100 scale. There was not enough data in 2022 to properly measure Progress and Closing Gaps, so those components were not reported for that year.

Content Mastery

Across all levels (elementary, middle, and high), CCSD schools saw increased Content Mastery scores from 2022 to 2023; however, elementary and middle schools were not back to their 2019 levels, with decreases mostly in English language arts. CCSD high schools performed better on Content Mastery than in 2019 thanks to large increases in science and social studies. 

CCSD elementary schools had an increase in science, while middle schools had an increase in social studies. Most schools saw increases in math. Overall, CCSD schools lag behind the state averages by 8 to 15 points in Content Mastery, and the district is maintaining an emphasis on rigorous instruction and additional resources and support for teachers and students to help close those gaps. 

Progress

Most CCSD schools made significant gains in student progress from 2019 to 2023, and all three levels had an average increase, most notably in math growth. CCSD high school students were more than 6 points above the state average in Progress. The district had an overall decrease in English language arts progress. 

Closing Gaps

CCSD schools at each level had massive improvements in their Closing Gaps scores from 2019 and beat the state averages for 2023, with middle and high schools outpacing other schools in Georgia by more than 20 points on average. All three levels for CCSD saw huge gains in math (29 points for middle, 27 points for high, and 24 points for elementary. However, the district is working to address significant gaps that remain for African American students, Hispanic students, English language learners, and students with disabilities. 

Readiness

CCSD schools at the elementary and middle school levels increased their Readiness scores on average from 2022 to 2023, but schools in general were not back to their 2019 levels. CCSD is focused on increasing English language arts achievement and improving student attendance (which was down in 2022 and 2023) in order to boost its reading scores, which are a primary driving factor in the Readiness component score. 

CCSD high schools saw strong gains in accelerated enrollment with over 50% of graduating seniors having college credit, pathway completion, and college and career readiness.

Graduation Rates

CCSD high schools saw decreases in graduation rates and fell further behind state averages, as reported more extensively here. However, district- and school-level staff implemented an approach in all classrooms at the start of this school year that — coupled with substantial increases in accelerated enrollment (including a 20-point jump in dual enrollment) and college and career pathway completion — the district anticipates will lead to higher graduation rates in 2024 and beyond.

Complete 2023 CCRPI data for CCSD and the state are available here.