House Study Committee on School Accountability Metrics & Educator Workforce Holds Second Meeting
The House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Education Performance Metrics and Workforce Stability held its second meeting Aug. 19 at the State Capitol. The committee is chaired by Rep. Bethany Ballard (R-Warner Robins) and has a dual focus on studying Georgia's state accountability assessment, the College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI), and strengthening the educator workforce.
Barrow County Staff Discuss Shortcomings of CCRPI and
Suggest Improvements
The first presenters were Jennie Persinger and Matt Thompson, both from Barrow County Schools. Until her recent retirement, Persinger was the director of data, assessment, and accountability, and Thompson serves as deputy superintendent. Persinger is also a PAGE board member.
Thompson opened by examining state and federal school accountability requirements and noted that school accountability assessments in Georgia are handled by two separate agencies: the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) and the Governor's Office of Education and Workforce Strategy (GOEWS). He noted that the absence of a single website to view all accountability scores in one place is an issue for parents. Thompson also presented data demonstrating a strong link between poverty and lower CCRPI Content Mastery component scores, which should be considered when examining school scores. Other CCRPI component scores, such as Progress, are less directly related to student poverty levels. He also showed additional evidence of the high variability issue in Content Mastery scores and suggested possible solutions, such as raising the minimum student count in each subgroup
Persinger stated that a single CCRPI score could obscure the nuances of a school's assessment performance. She also asserted that schools receive the scores too late to make the best use of them in planning. Persinger noted there is no specific accountability score for early literacy and shared how other states measure this data point.
Thompson and Persinger concluded their presentation by outlining five suggestions to improve CCRPI:
Troup County Superintendent Rachel Hazel and other school system staff briefly spoke after the Barrow County presentation and reiterated their support for several points. Hazel also stressed the importance of supporting and funding early literacy improvement efforts.
GaDOE Provides CCRPI Overview
Allison Timberlake, deputy superintendent for assessment and accountability at GaDOE, outlined the requirements, history, and structure of CCRPI. She also provided a list of guiding principles for accountability assessment systems.
Committee members asked how scores could be calculated and released to schools more quickly. Timberlake replied that the Georgia release timeline is partly determined by the department's work undertaken to validate data. She also noted that, if the timeline was pushed up, some current data may not be able to be included in accountability scores, as it would not be collected in time.
Following Timberlake's presentation, Ballard expressed frustration that GaDOE had not provided her with the requested list of the specific changes GaDOE had made to CCRPI and justification for each change. Ballard asked that this information be sent to her so she could pass it on to the committee.
ExcelinEd Suggests Multiple Changes to CCRPI
Christy Hovanetz, senior policy fellow with ExcelinEd, presented data showing the public's views on various aspects of accountability assessments. She reported nine out of 10 people polled support annual testing. She also stated that the public is most interested in metrics related to academic performance, academic growth, graduation rates, and college and career readiness. Finally, Hovanetz asserted that A-F letter grading was the most preferred scoring style for accountability assessments.
Hovanetz then provided suggestions for school accountability systems and guidance on selecting accountability indicators. She concluded by presenting several recommendations to improve CCRPI.
Committee Next Steps
The House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Education Performance Metrics and Workforce Stability is set to meet Sept. 9. PAGE is scheduled to present at this meeting.
