The Putnam County Board of Education met Monday to listen to a presentation on Georgia Milestone scores and hear updates about the new elementary school.
Assistant Superintendent Laura Melton presented last school year’s milestones results and announced upcoming changes to the College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) scores.
Due to changes being made by the state, the CCRPI scoring is not expected to be released until November and may look differently based on numerous factors outlined in an email to the Putnam County Charter School System.
“Assuming we are interpreting the email correctly, the single CCRPI will no longer be used,” said Melton. “We do not yet know what it will be replaced by.”
This year’s milestone presentation compared three years' worth of data against the state’s scores for the elementary, middle, and high school tests. Students who rank developing or higher are meeting expectations on the milestones while those ranking proficient or higher are excelling on the tests.
According to Melton, in elementary and middle school, the school system’s weakness was in English Language Arts. Based on a thorough examination, students are doing great on the grammar and vocabulary portion of the tests but struggling on the writing portion.
She named several struggles including story development, organization, cohesiveness in the story, and more. However, the majority of high school scores for American Literature were on par with the state or above, showing that students are able to grasp English Language Arts and the writing portion of the tests by high school.
The elementary and middle schools also both excelled over the state in mathematics in the developing or higher score. In addition, Algebra 1 for the high school level which was deemed an “area of concern” in previous tests showed scores “in-line” with the state.
“There are definitely areas to improve in. I feel that math we are excelling in and English Language Arts needs continuous work then there are some specific subject areas that could also be worked on,” said Melton. “We are always wanting to grow and there are things we can change to make it more beneficial to the students.”
On the high school level, Milton remarked that the U.S. History scores “need to see improvement.” Teachers already began a review and realization of the curriculum over the summer to try and raise scores for this school year. Conversations are continuing alongside consistent planning to work on this area.
Similarly, eighth-grade social studies was also remarked with a “need for improvement” and teachers are making changes moving forward in an attempt to raise scores.
“The board has always asked us to build an education system beneficial to our students but not necessarily beneficial to a score. I believe we have done that,” said Eric Arena, Putnam County superintendent. “If we wanted to chase scores, we would take the standards and only teach what is tested but we are developing a system that benefits students. Is our system always going to equate to high test scores? Not necessarily, but you (the Board of Education) can see the impact that the school system has had on each of our students.”
The district plan moving forward includes early screeners for reading and writing in kindergarten through fifth grade, unpacking of the Georgia ELA standard and updating pacing guides, targeting inventions for subgroups, a deep dive and planning for U.S. History, an extended learning summer, a focus on the writing components of the ELA standards, and a blended learning focus with student choice.
“These are only a few examples of the actions we will be taking to improve scores and benefit our students,” said Melton when presenting the District Plan slide. “Many changes will be made moving forward and discussions are continuous between teachers, principals, and staff.”
Assistant Superintendent Derrick Austin presented a short timeline update on the new elementary school. According to Austin, they are in the site development phase and later this year bidding on the site packet will occur. The building phase is planned to begin in March and the school is set to open in August of 2025.
“We are currently on schedule with room to maneuver if needed,” said Austin.
Concluding the meeting, the board unanimously approved two agenda items. They approved Georgia Civil Inc., based in Madison, as the civil engineer for the new elementary school project. The company has been used for other projects, such as the renovation of the high school football stadium. They also approved the purchase of a replacement bus from Rush Truck Centers of Georgia for $125,500.
The funds will come from general funds and the purchase will replace the bus totaled in a wreck that occurred at the end of last school year.