College and Career Ready Performance Index

The Georgia Department of Education released the state College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) in mid-April. The released scores represent data for the 2012 & 2013 school years. In an effort to make the CCRPI more “rigorous,” the state adjusted both the measures and the calculations of the 2013 CCRPI thereby rendering a comparison between the 2012 and 2013 CCRPI scores impossible. For example, one of the indicators in the 2012 CCRPI for both elementary and middle schools was the “percent of students in grade five or eight passing at least four courses in the core content areas (English, math, science, and social studies).” In 2013, the indicator changed to read the “percent of students in grade five or eight passing at least four courses in core content areas (ELA, mathematics, science, social studies) and scoring at Meets or Exceeds on all CRCT and required EOCTs.” The change to this indicator alone impacted the ability to compare year to year. The myriad of changes were not made known to district or school staff until well into the 2013-2014 school year, and the adjustments applied retroactively to the 2012-2013 school year data. In an effort to enable a comparison, the Georgia Department of Education applied the new 2012-2013 indicators and calculations to the 2011-2012 final data. Comparing the new 2012-2013 CCRPI scores to the old 2011-2012 CCRPI would not have been possible (although many people would have done it anyway), so the changes resulted in a “re-calculated 2012” score. The re-calculated score reflects the rigor associated with the 2013 adjustments. The following revisions were made to the 2013 CCRPI:

ELEMENTARY: Percent of students in Grade 5 passing at least 5 courses in core content areas (ELA, reading, mathematics, science, social studies) and scoring at Meets or Exceeds on all CRCT (Change: Previous version did not include reading & passing ALL CRCTs) MIDDLE: Percent of students completing 2 or more state defined career related assessments/inventories and a state defined Individual Graduation Plan by the end of grade 8 (Change:Previous CCRPI had these listed separately – now they are combined) Percent of students in grade eight passing at least four courses in core content areas (ELA, mathematics, science, social studies) and scoring at Meets or Exceeds on all CRCTs and required EOCTs (Change: Previous version did not include passing all CRCTs and required EOCTs) HIGH: Coordinate Algebra, Calculations for Graduation Rate, World Language (Change: Coordinate Algebra is a new EOCT, 4 year graduation rate: weight 2/3--5 year graduation rate 1/3, removed World Language and adding it back for 2013-2014)

SUMMARY OF CALCULATION-CHANGES

Benjamin Franklin said, “An ounce of

prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It is

imperative that ongoing assessment,

interventions, and parent notification occur if

we are to prevent student failure, and ultimately

student dropout. As soon as a student is

identified as struggling and/or not passing, we

need to “sound the fire alarm.” A student’s

failure is often an uncontrollable “wild fire” that

will spread to unrelated areas if the adults don’t

swiftly get involved. We must continue to

sound the “fire alarm” throughout our

buildings until steps are taken to intervene on

behalf of the student. The sounding of the

alarm signals real trouble---each resulting

response will be different, depending on the

needs of the impacted student. When there is a

wild fire, firefighters show up to battle the fire.

Once they get the fire under control, some

return to the station, while the remaining team

continues work to extinguish the fire. Similarly,

our students need all of our “firefighters”

supporting them until their problem is

adequately addressed or “extinguished”.

Identifying and responding to student

deficiencies early will positively impact our

students who may become frustrated and make

the decision to dropout. To learn more about

DROPOUT prevention, visit the NDPC at

http://www.dropoutprevention.org/

Early & Ongoing Assessment &

Intervention=Dropout Prevention

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Area 2012 2013 Achievement 70 Points 60 Points

Progress 15 Points 25 Points

Achievement Gap (Closure)

15 Points, Minimum was 1

15 Points, Minimum now ZERO

CCRPI By The Numbers

Graduation Information All graduations will take place at Springfield Baptist Church located at 1877 Iris Dr. SE, Conyers, GA 30013 Alcovy High School-Friday, May 23 at 8:00 PM Newton High School-Saturday, May 24 at 9:00 AM Eastside High School-Saturday, May 24 at 3:00 PM

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2012

Recalculated

2013 as

reported

4/16/14

District overall 73.4 75.2

East Newton 79.7 85.4

Fairv iew 57.2 74.6

Flint Hill 61.4 69.1

Heard Mixon 83.6 74.3

Live Oak 77.4 76.9

Liv ingston 67.8 69.9

Mansfield 83.4 84.8

Middle Ridge 70.5 71.8

NCTS @ Ficquett 89.8 93.8

Oak Hill 70.2 72.7

Porterdale 52 71.4

Rocky Plains 71.2 87.8

South Salem 59 75.2

West Newton 73.4 73.6

Elementary TOTAL 71.5 77.5

Clements 69.5 83.8

Cousins 64.4 75.4

Indian Creek 71.2 74.6

Liberty 74.9 77.2

NCTS @ Ficquett 82 99.6

Veterans 72.1 66.6

Middle Total 70.1 76

Eastside 80.2 81.1

Newton 78.4 69.8

Alcovy 75.6 69.1

High School Total 78.6 69.4

NCSS CCRPI Comparison

Elementary

Middle

High

Newton County

Theme School

The Theme School has earned the distinction of being

identified as the highest performing middle school in

the state as measured by the CCRPI. We are proud

of the students, parents, staff, and school leaders and

congratulate them for this accomplishment!

GREAT JOB Keep up the excellent work!

Eastside High School

Eastside High School’s CCRPI score represents the

hard work and dedication of the students, parents,

staff, and school leaders. When considering school

systems that border Newton County (Henry, Rockdale,

Walton, Jasper, Butts, Social Circle City, Morgan),

Eastside posted the second highest CCRPI score of

all the high schools in each system---following only

Union Grove High School in Henry County.

Additionally, according to the “Similar Schools Index”

which identifies high schools that are similar in make-

up, Eastside’s CCRPI score of 81.1 places the school

1st out of 17 schools identified as similar.

Congratulations to the students, parents, staff, and

school leaders! We are proud of you all! GREAT JOB!

Governor’s Honors

Six students representing Eastside & Newton High

Schools will be attending a four week instructional

program at Valdosta State University. These

students have been named as winners of the

prestigious Governor’s Honors Program for

outstanding sophomores and juniors. We are

pleased to announce the following students will be

attending the summer program! This is quite an

accomplishment!

Eastside High School Newton High School Anna Davis-Latin Ian Cole-Visual Arts Mathew Dean-Music Voice Hezekiah Rogers-Music Kaylah Kennedy-Latin Brittany Webb-Math Ann Marie Nyokore & Craig Thomas from Newton High School have been named alternates for the summer program.

Gates Millenium Scholars The Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) Program, funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was established in 1999 to provide outstanding African American, American Indian/Alaska Native*, Asian Pacific Islander American**, and Hispanic American students with an opportunity to complete an undergraduate college education in any discipline area of interest. Continuing GMSs may request funding for a graduate degree program in one of the following discipline areas: computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health or science. The GMS Program selects 1,000 talented students each year to receive a “good-through-graduation” scholarship to use at any college or university of their choice. Only students who have a GPA of 3.3 or higher are eligible to apply. We are happy to announce that the following students have been selected to receive the Gates Millenium Scholarship:

Alcovy High School Leslie Ochei Newton High School Gloria Alafe Brandon Hayden

Eboni Wimbley

THANK YOU

While our data does not reflect our ultimate destination, it does reflect GREAT progress on our journey. You have worked hard to ensure our students are increasingly more successful, and our students are improving their performance! Keep focused and stay the course-we are headed in the right direction! We are showing steady progress, and as long as we are willing to face our brutal facts and do something about them, we will continue to improve.

This is an AWESOME accomplishment!!

The Newton County School System's Strategic Plan can be found at the link below.

Take the time to review the plan!

http://www.newtoncountyschools.org/Portals/0/newtoncounty/main/documents/strategic%20plan/NCSS%20Strategic%20Plan.pdf

TWITTER HIGHLIGHTS

Students, teachers, and our community working to ensure our students are the

beneficiaries of a high quality, relevant, engaging education.

Check out Twitter- See for yourself! #NCSSBeTheBest

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