Henry County Shows Growth in its CCRPI 2024 Numbers Despite Schools on the Lowest Performing List

This week, many residents had concerns after seeing 23 Henry County schools on the state’s list of lowest-performing schools. The state’s list was based on two years of data. However, nearly every school saw improvement in the CCRPI 2024 report. In addition, several schools were recognized by the state in November for gains in literacy or math.

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What is CCRPI?

First, what is CCRPI? The College and Career Ready Performance Index is the state’s performance metric to measure schools and school districts. The state published the CCRPI 2024 results on Friday, December 6. This year’s release is the second year of full data since normal reporting returned following the pandemic. It can provide a comparison between 2023 and now.

Some may remember the district received an overall score up to 2019. The state no longer assigns an overall score to the district, nor to each school. Instead, the data now focuses on four individual components. A fifth component, graduation rate, applies for high schools.

Those components include the following:

• Content Mastery measures whether students are achieving at the level necessary to be prepared for the next grade, college, or career.
• Progress measures how much growth students demonstrate from one school year to the next.
• Closing Gaps sets the expectations that all students and student groups make annual improvements in achievement rates or maintain high levels of achievement.
• Readiness measures whether students are participating in activities preparing them for and demonstrating readiness for the next level.
• Graduation Rate (High School only).

Each school receives a score between 0-100 in each area. Additional information about the program is available on the state website.

Henry County CCRPI 2024 Highlights

This section has been reprinted from Henry County Schools. The full CCRPI scores for all Henry County schools are at the end of this article.

Districtwide highlights include:

• The overall district-level Content Mastery performance increased across all levels – elementary, middle, and high – by an average of 1.56 percentage points per level, with high schools showing the most growth of 3.2 percentage points.
• A total of 19 elementary schools, seven middle schools, and seven high schools showed increased Content Mastery from 2023 to 2024.
• Closing Gaps performance increased by 26 percentage points from 2023 to 2024 (i.e., yellow and green flags), showing progress toward meeting improvement targets, with the largest gains in elementary school (+59 percentage points).
• A total of 10 elementary schools, five middle schools, and four high schools showed increased Progress from 2023 to 2024.
• Overall Readiness, which analyzes student attendance, literacy rates, and course participation, also increased across all levels by an average of 1.03 percentage points per level, with high schools showing the most growth of 1.9 percentage points.
• The CCRPI Graduation Rate of 87.7, which combines both four- and five-year graduation rates, outperformed the state by two percentage points.

“Across Henry County Schools, we believe all students can learn at or above grade level, and we will focus our support, so every child has access to a world-class education,” said Superintendent Dr. John Pace III. “We are committed to working tirelessly to ensure every student has the resources and opportunities needed to increase academic achievement and postsecondary success.”

Henry County School-level highlights from the 2024 CCRPI reporting cycle, reflecting gains over 2023, include:

Content Mastery

Overall, a total of 33 elementary, middle, and high schools showed gains in Content Mastery, increasing by 12 schools over 2023.

Elementary School

At the elementary school level, 19 schools showed gains in Content Mastery, increasing by three schools over 2023. They include the following:

Three elementary schools — New Hope (71.4), East Lake (71.3) and Timber Ridge (68) — outperformed the state 2024 Content Mastery score of 67.8.

Middle School

At the middle school level, seven schools showed gains in Content Mastery, increasing by five schools over 2023. They include the following:

Two middle schools, Union Grove (73.3) and Ola (68.4), outperformed the state 2024 Content Mastery score of 64.

High School

At the high school level, seven schools showed gains in Content Mastery, increasing by four schools over 2023. They include the following:

Two high schools, Ola (77.7) and Union Grove (77.3), outperformed the state 2024 Content Mastery score of 68.2.

Progress

Overall, a total of 19 elementary, middle, and high schools showed Progress increases over 2023.

Elementary School

At the elementary school level, 10 schools showed gains in Progress:

Six elementary schools — Rock Spring (94.8), Smith-Barnes (92), New Hope (89.1), Locust Grove (87.6), Mt. Carmel (87.1), and Timber Ridge (87) — outperformed the state 2024 Progress score of 86.2.

Middle School

At the middle school level, five schools showed gains in Progress:

• Ola (+8.7),
• Woodland (+8.2),
• Dutchtown (+7.5),
• McDonough (+0.8), and
• Austin Road (+0.2).

Three middle schools, Ola (89.9), Woodland (84.2), and Union Grove (82.7) outperformed the state Progress score of 82.3.

High School

At the high school level, four schools showed gains in Progress:

• Luella (+5.4),
• McDonough (+2.8),
• Locust Grove (+1.8), and
• Dutchtown (+0.9).

Five high schools — Ola (99.4), Dutchtown (94.7), McDonough (93.6), Union Grove (91.3), and Woodland (85.6) — exceeded the state 2024 Progress performance of 82.7.

Readiness

A majority of HCS schools at each level saw increases in Readiness scores.

Elementary School

At the elementary school level, 16 schools showed gains in Readiness:

Additionally, four HCS elementary schools — New Hope (86.9), East Lake (85.3), Timber Ridge (83.9), and Ola (83.3) — outperformed the state 2024 Readiness score of 83.2.

Middle School

An impressive 82% of HCS middle schools increased or maintained in Readiness:

Four middle schools — Union Grove (90.2), Ola (85.3), Woodland (84.3), and Dutchtown (83) — outperformed the state Readiness score of 82.8.

High School

Readiness, which also factors in accelerated enrollment, pathway completion, and college and career readiness at the high school level, improved in 80% of district high schools:

Two high schools, Ola (81.9) and Union Grove (78.5), exceeded the state Readiness score of 73.3.

Closing Gaps

The rollout of the state’s newly adjusted math curriculum occurred during the 2024 school year. Due to these curriculum changes, Closing Gaps scores in CCRPI did not include a measure for mathematics at all levels. Consequently, Closing Gaps scores for the 2023 and 2024 CCRPI reporting cycles are not comparable.

Four elementary schools – Cotton Indian, Locust Grove, New Hope, and Rock Spring – matched the state’s Closing Gaps performance of 100 for the 2024 report.

Four HCS middle schools – Ola (100), Union Grove (90), Woodland (78.6), and Austin Road (70.6) – outperformed the state 2024 Closing Gaps score of 68.3.

Five HCS high schools – Dutchtown (100), McDonough (100), Ola (100), Locust Grove (90.55), and Luella (89.5) – exceeded the state 2024 Closing Gaps performance of 81.7.

Exceptional Gains

Elementary School

Six HCS elementary schools — Cotton Indian, Locust Grove, New Hope, Ola, Red Oak, and Rock Spring — saw growth in all four CCRPI components over 2023.

New Hope outperformed the state in all four components.

“These results reflect the impact of our entire team, which consistently holds high expectations for each other and each student in our building,” said New Hope Elementary School Principal Dr. Micki Foster. “Our belief in children, strong desire to create meaningful learning opportunities, and an intense focus on instruction continue to lead to amazing student outcomes. We are extremely proud of our bright Knights for their continuous growth and academic excellence!”

Middle School

Four middle schools – Austin Road, Dutchtown, Ola, and Woodland – improved in all four CCRPI indicators.

Ola and Union Grove outperformed the state in all four CCRPI components in 2024.

“This achievement highlights the dedication and ongoing hard work of our teachers, leaders, staff, students, parents, and a community committed to Ola Middle School’s academic success and continuous improvement,” said Ola Middle School Principal Christine Anderson. “Together, we set a standard of excellence that inspires growth and achievement. I am beyond proud to recognize the hard work of the Ola Middle School team.”

“Union Grove Middle School’s commitment to exceeding above and beyond the academic and operational expectations of the school, district, and community has contributed directly to growth in multiple areas of college and career readiness,” added Union Grove Middle School Principal Dwayne Richards. “Our staff’s intentional focus on providing rigorous academic instruction, alignment of instruction to state standards, and use of instructional strategies designed to address the academic needs of diverse learners contributed to overall school growth and achievement.”

High School

Over half of Henry County Schools high schools improved their 2024 CCRPI graduation rate, including EXCEL Academy (+3.3), McDonough (+3), Hampton (+2.3), Ola (+1.3), Union Grove (+0.5), and Luella (+0.4).

Eight high schools – Ola (94.5), Union Grove (93.2), Hampton (91.4), Dutchtown (91.3), Eagle’s Landing (88.5), Woodland (87.7), Luella (87.6), McDonough (86.5) – exceeded the state’s graduation rate of 85.7 in 2024.

Two schools saw performance highlights across all five high school-level CCRPI components. McDonough High School demonstrated increases in all five CCRPI components for 2024, while Ola High School outperformed the state in all five CCRPI components in 2024.

“At McDonough High School, our success is rooted in the unwavering dedication of our teachers, leaders, and staff, who believe in the limitless potential of every student,” said McDonough High School Principal Monica Blasingame. “The performances reflect the resilience, hard work, and determination of our students, who continue to rise to the challenges before them each and every day. This recognition is a testament to the collective efforts of our school community to remove barriers, create opportunities, and empower our students to achieve their fullest potential.”

“We are incredibly proud of the hard work and dedication to academic success displayed by all our Mustang students and teachers,” added Ola High School Principal Nick Ellis. “Their focus on improvement and tireless work in the classroom showed in these outstanding results for Ola High School.”

This ends the section reprinted from Henry County Schools.

The Lowest-Performing Schools List

In spring 2024, the Georgia assembly passed a school voucher bill. This program enables parents to receive state funds towards private school or home school IF their student attends a school in the lowest 25% of the state. Specifically, the voucher is for $6,500. The state shared its inaugural lowest-performing schools list in early December. Parents of students at these schools may apply for the voucher for the 2025-26 school year. Voucher eligibility includes a couple other criteria, such as income.

The state used two years of CCRPI scores to determine which schools comprise the bottom 25%. There are 23 Henry County schools on the list. They include the following:

The state expects to begin accepting applications for the school voucher in early 2025. In addition to the school voucher, there’s traditional school choice to request a transfer within the district. That application, subject to available space at each school, typically opens in January.

HCS Response

“The list of schools associated with the Georgia Promise Act provides us an opportunity to view school accountability from a new perspective based on historical data of the CCRPI. In many cases, this list does not reflect the current performance of schools identified, and we embrace the opportunity to include this new perspective going forward,” said Superintendent Pace. “HCS has a mindset of continuous improvement. We believe all students can perform at or above grade level and will have an equal opportunity to do so, and we will use this new accountability component of the Promise Act as motivation to produce excellent results as we pursue the shared vision of our community and Board of Education as set forth in our Community-Inspired Strategic Plan.”

The district’s focus on continuous improvement and proactive governance has nurtured a culture dedicated to realizing academic excellence in every school across the district.

“Our focus remains on improving achievement through the lens of CCRPI for all schools,” said Chief Learning and Performance Officer Termerion McCrary. “We are making strides, but we know there is still critical work to do to ensure every student and student group achieves at the highest levels – an opportunity we fully embrace.”

State Literacy and Math Leaders

In November, State Superintendent Richard Woods visited Henry County to award 14 Henry County schools as literacy and math leaders. This is based on demonstrated growth and achievement in the 2023-2024 school year.

Six HCS Literacy Leaders were among 324 schools statewide recognized for demonstrating achievement or growth in the percentage of students reading at or above grade level:

• Hampton Elementary,
• Pleasant Grove Elementary,
• Red Oak Elementary,
• Woodland Elementary,
• Locust Grove Middle, and
• Ola Middle.

Nine HCS Math Leaders were among the 624 schools statewide recognized for meeting qualifications related to exceptional achievement or growth in mathematics:

Ola Middle School received awards for both math and literacy.

Henry County CCRPI 2024 Full Data Set

The Henry County CCRPI scores for 2023 and 2024 are below. The scores are also available on the state website.

Elementary Schools

Middle Schools

High Schools

Featured image shows the Henry County Schools district office. Henry County Schools photo.