Nearly 10 years after the Bibb County School District implemented a strategic waiver that allowed them flexibility in hiring, class sizes, and finance, the results from standardized testing have been mixed.
Georgia measures student success with the College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI), which looks at if students are prepared for the next grade, college, or a career.
While specific categories of metrics have shifted slightly over the years, the main measures of accountability are Content Mastery, Progress, Readiness, Graduation Rate, and Closing Gaps.
According to GaDOE, Content Mastery “addresses 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 in English language arts and mathematics and how well English learners are progressing towards English language proficiency.”
Readiness, specifically for high schools, includes indicators to address the question of “are students participating in activities preparing them for and demonstrating readiness for the next level, college, or career?”
Graduation Rate “addresses the question: are students graduating from high school with a regular high school diploma in four or five years?”
Closing Gaps “sets the expectation that all students and all student subgroups make improvements in achievement rates,” according to GaDOE.
CCRPI metrics also include racial, economical, language, and disability demographics. Georgia has been putting out yearly CCRPI scores and a more comprehensive look at how schools and counties are doing since 2012.
Have CCRPI Scores Improved Since the Waiver?
To determine if the waiver has improved in its categories, CCRPI scores like Graduation Rate and College and Career Readiness are the most telling. It is also useful to look at the Overall Score, or the GOSA Single Score for 2024. Elementary and middle schools receive the same categories, excluding Graduation Rate.
The scores analyzed below are based on only high school CCRPI scores. Scores from 2018-2024 are housed on the same website and different years can be accessed through the dropdown menu at the top of the page.
From 2015 to 2016, the Overall CCRPI score for Bibb’s high schools went from 61.6 to 62.4, seeing some improvement. As a whole Georgia scored 75.8 in 2015.
After Bibb’s score increased to 69.5 in 2017, it dipped back down to 63.5 in 2018. Bibb schools received a score of 65.2 in 2019, but some CCRPI metrics are not available in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 due to COVID.
The next available score dropped drastically to a 57.7 in 2024, far below Georgia’s score of a 77.4. Although the score dropped by 7.5%, a press release from Bibb County said that “Bibb students at many schools continue to make strides in the areas of Content Mastery, Progress, and Readiness, along with the continued increase in the District’s graduation rate.” They did not provide details regarding the 7.5% drop.
(Taleen Hanna)
Before the waiver, overall Graduation Rates for all Bibb high schools were ranging from around 50% to 60%. From the 2014 rate of 58.9% to the 2015 rate of 71.2%, it increased by 13%, which was the greatest increase but still below the state’s 2015 rate of 78.9%.
From there, the rate went up to 77% in 2017, and has steadily increased since then. The 2024 Graduation Rate was 87.3%, higher than Georgia’s rate of 85.7%. In the press release by Bibb County, they stated that Bibb high schools “were noted as being above the state average in the combined four and five year Graduation Rate.”
The five indicators measured with Readiness are at or above grade-level reading, student attendance, accelerated enrollment, pathway completion, and college and career readiness, according to GaDOE.
While Readiness scores are based on mostly standardized tests like ACT/SAT/ AP/ IB scores, End of Pathway Assessments, and entering the Technical College System of Georgia/ University System of Georgia without needing remediation, these scores leave out a way to see success in other areas.
Although some metrics like pathway completion give a more holistic look at how prepared students are for what comes after high school, there are still gaps in data that need to be filled. Many of those categories do not take into account students who do not perform well on standardized tests, or who aren’t in advanced classes, but they might be very talented when it comes to a trade or other career possibilities.
Readiness was measured as a weighted point system from 2012 until 2017, and as a percentage from 2018 to 2024; therefore, scores from 2012-2017 cannot be compared to scores from 2018-2024. Paula Swartzberg, director of accountability for GaDOE, said that since the calculations are different, scores cannot be compared when there is a new system in place.
The overall Readiness scores from 2012-2017 are also challenging to compare, since in 2015 and 2017 they were scored out of 80 points, but in other years they were scored out of 70 points. Scores from 2012 to 2014 remained in the range of 42-43 points out of 70 possible points. In 2015, the score was 42.3 out of 80 points. In 2016, the score was 38.2 out of 70 points. In 2017, the score was 41 out of 80 points.
For Readiness scores, Bibb scored a 42.3 out of 80 in 2015 and Georgia scored a 52 out of 80. In 2018, Bibb scored a 51.45% and Georgia scored a 73.3%. In 2024, Bibb scored a 45.64%, very low in comparison to Georgia’s same score of 73.3%.
Olena Stadnik Floore, director of elementary services for Bibb County Schools, said that the waiver has allowed for a “stronger focus on preparing the students for that next step, whether it’s their next grade level or college or career.”
Overall, based on CCRPI scores, Bibb’s strategic waiver has helped Graduation Rates the most. Readiness scores– actually preparing students for what comes after their high school education, have not improved as notably as Graduation Rates.
Brian Butler, executive director of teaching and learning for Bibb County Schools said that the waiver has allowed them to bring in teachers with different backgrounds and experiences, specifically to teach Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education (CTAE) classes in high schools. These pathways offer students a way to see future careers, some that do require higher education, but also some that require other paths after high school.
“Those teachers have a way to really relate to our students. With the waiver, we can bring industry professionals and people that have experience outside of education,” Butler said.
The waiver allows individuals with a bachelor’s degree to hold teaching positions, and they complete their teaching certification during their time working as a teacher, Stephanie Hartley, chief communications officer for Bibb County Schools, said.
How Did We Get Here?
The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act set high standards to make schools accountable for student performance. It primarily measured student progress in reading and math through standardized tests.
The Georgia Department of Education was following the NCLB requirements until 2011, when the U.S. Department of Education offered flexibility waivers for states to opt out of NCLB.If they did so, they were required to develop their own accountability metrics– ways to measure student success in areas like content mastery and readiness for the next grade level.
The Georgia Department of Education opted out of NCLB and created their own measure, called College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI). While specific categories of metrics have shifted slightly over the years, the main measures of accountability are Content Mastery, Progress, Readiness, Graduation Rate, and Closing Gaps.
Swartzberg said the state worked with stakeholders to design the first CCRPI. Since then, metrics have changed over time to be weighted differently and calculated differently.
A new metric added in the 2024 report was the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) Overall Score, which is a weighted average of all the main CCRPI data components, the categories being weighted differently for elementary, middle, and high schools.
“Our agency, GOSA, calculated the Single Score for the very first time this year, due to legislation that passed during the last session,” Monica Flamini, senior policy and research analyst for GOSA said.
According to GaDOE, the change from CCRPI score to the GOSA Single Score was put into place to “increase transparency and provide a more complete picture of school performance, ensuring that challenges and opportunities are not hidden behind a Single Score.”
While the GOSA Single Score and the GaDOE Overall Score are different in how they’re calculated, they are both on a scale of 100.
Bibb County as a Strategic Waiver School System
Bibb County schools have been a Strategic Waiver School System (SWSS) since 2016. GOSA defines a SWSS contract as providing “local school districts with governance flexibility as a means to increase student achievement.”
The Bibb County Schools’ waiver allows them to have flexibility on class size, expenditures, certification requirements, and salary schedule. As part of Bibb’s accountability process, they utilize CCRPI scores to measure improvement.
Bibb County Schools’ strategic waiver will be up for renewal for the next school year, making it the 10th year they are under a SWSS.
