More than 1,000 Georgia schools beat the odds in 2016, performing better than statistically expected on the College and Career Ready Performance Index.

The CCRPI is Georgia’s statewide accountability system. It measures schools and school districts on a 100-point scale based on multiple indicators of performance.

The Beating the Odds analysis predicts a range within which a school’s CCRPI score is statistically expected to fall – given the school’s size, grade cluster, student mobility, and student demographics (including race/ethnicity, disability, English learners, and poverty). If an individual school’s actual CCRPI is above the predicted range, then that school beat the odds.

Most (731) of the schools that beat the odds had poverty rates of 25 percent or more, and 437 had poverty rates of 40 percent or more.

And of the 1,037 schools that beat the odds last year, 271 beat the odds in each of the past five years. Eighty-one of these schools had a 2016 poverty rate of 40 percent or more, and more than half – 157 – had poverty rates of 25 percent or more.

“We view these schools as major success stories,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said. “In fact, it’s difficult to fully express the magnitude of what they’ve achieved. Statistically, a high rate of poverty presents multiple barriers to achievement, but these schools are beating the odds and doing excellent work on behalf of Georgia students.”

Almost all (178) of Georgia’s 180 school districts have a performance contract (either Charter System or Strategic Waiver School System) that includes requirements related to both CCRPI and the Beating the Odds analysis. For the 136 Strategic Waiver School Systems, Beating the Odds is a “second look” for schools that don’t raise their CCRPI score sufficiently in a given year. For the 42 Charter Systems, the percentage of their schools that beat the odds must grow each year.

Of the 153 “chronically failing” schools in Georgia (those with a CCRPI score at 60 or below), 21 of them beat the odds in 2016 – outperforming statistical expectations for their school.