WBHS, AHS rated fair by GPPF

The annual ranking is designed to provide Georgia parents with specific school information as well as data regarding the quality of public education throughout the state.

Kelly McCutchen, president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, cautions that the data is only a starting point for analyzing performance and is no substitute for visiting schools and considering the impact other factors may have on achievement.

“There are schools that may not rank highly, but, for your child, are wonderful,” McCutchen said. Conversely, children at very highly ranked schools are sometimes left behind, he added.

McCutchen said the annual report card gives parents unbiased data based strictly on academic achievement obtained from the Georgia Department of Education.

“We’ve always believed it is important for parents to understand how their schools are performing,” McCutchen said. “We get tremendous feedback. It is one of the most popular things we do.”

McCutchen said educators also appreciate the information because it allows them to track and compare performance over time.

The report ranks Georgia’s public elementary schools based on third grade test scores and fifth grade test scores. Middle schools are ranked based on eighth grade test scores and high school rankings are based on End-Of-Course-Test scores and graduation rates.

Both Winder-Barrow High School and Apalachee High School ranked in the third quintile in the report meaning at least 40 percent of Georgia public high schools scored higher in the GPPF rankings.

Apalachee High School was ranked 162 out of 357 schools statewide. AHS’ achievement score was 72.6 out of a possible 100. The achievement score is based on the average of the high school’s graduation rate and the percentage of students passing the Georgia End-Of-Course-Tests.

Winder-Barrow High School was ranked slightly lower at 172 with an achievement score of 71.9.

School system spending per student for each school averaged almost $7,200 compared to the $6,300 spent per full time student at the top ranked Davidson Magnet School in Richmond County.

Barrow County’s four middle schools showed mixed results.

Two schools, Haymon Morris and Westside Middle, were ranked in the second quintile with at least 20 percent of Georgia middle schools faring better in the rankings. However, Russell Middle and Winder-Barrow Middle fell in the next to bottom quintile scoring only better than the lowest 20 percent of all schools ranked.

Haymon Morris and Westside Middle were ranked 106 and 129 respectively out of 507 middle schools. Russell Middle was ranked much lower at 317 while Winder-Barrow Middle received the lowest ranking of the four county middle schools at 321.

At the fifth grade level, only Yargo Elementary scored in the top 20 percent with a ranking of 204 out of a possible 1,212. Four Barrow county elementary schools – Bethlehem, Bramlett, Kennedy and Statham – scored in the second quintile. County Line and Auburn Elementary finished in the third quintile with respective rankings of 527 and 663 while Holsenbeck was scored in the next to lowest quintile with a rank of 799.

Of the 1,219 public schools evaluated at the third grade level, 431 scored higher than Barrow County’s top ranked Bramlett Elementary. Both Bramlett and Kennedy were ranked in the second quintile of Georgia public schools. Yargo, Statham, Bethlehem and Auburn were ranked in the middle quintile with County Line and Holsenbeck scoring in the next to lowest percentile.

The full report is available online at http://gppf.org/pub/edrc2010.htm. The report includes information regarding high school graduation rates, end of course test passing rates, poverty rates for each school as well as school spending per student.

GPPF plans to offer even more detailed information soon, McCutchen said. Now that the GPPF has acquired several years’ worth of data, they plan to analyze that information to show how students are progressing over the years.

“That tells you more than the absolute rankings,” McCutchen explained.

Within the next three months, McCutchen hopes to make the data available to the public. Instead of relying solely on the current rankings, parents and educators will be able to tell if their school is performing better or worse than in previous years.

“That’s what we hope we are going to be able to measure,” he said.