MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Georgia Department of Education’s newly released college readiness data shows Colquitt County School District has a mild path of recovery to reach pre-pandemic numbers.

The College and Career Ready Performance Index report shows how students are performing across the state at all school levels. The state has not released a report since 2019 – prior to the pandemic — and its scores cannot be entirely compared to this year’s report due to changes in the reporting process.

“This year, the DOE applied for and received federal permission for exceptions in how it reports the data because of the COVID pandemic. As a result of the reporting modifications, the DOE did not assign overall letter or number grades to each school and district as it usually does,” according to a Capitol Beat article.

It also does not evaluate student attendance for all schools or college and career readiness for high schools. However, the report does include an average readiness score for all school levels.

The 2022 data will be used as a new baseline for evaluating future school progression and improvement.

Colquitt County School District leaders spoke with The Observer Tuesday morning about its performance.

For elementary and middle schools, “readiness” includes literacy scores and data on the percentage of students passing “Beyond the Core” instruction.

The state deems “Beyond the Core” instruction at the elementary level as fine arts, world language, and computer science, and at the middle school level as fine arts, world language, physical education/health, career exploratory and computer science.

This year, the Colquitt County School District elementary school readiness score of 65.6 is down from 2019’s score of 77.5 and the state’s current score of 71.8. The state’s 2019 elementary readiness score was 81. A major factor in the drop is the CCSD’s 2019 elementary literacy score of 40.55 dropped to 32.88. Its Beyond the Core score of 98.39 slightly excelled over the state score of 96.93.

The CCSD middle school scores took a similar hit with a readiness score of 65.6. The 2022 score was also down from 2019’s score of 77.3 and the state’s current score of 75.1. The state’s 2019 middle readiness score was 82.9. The CCSD middle literacy scores mirrored the decrease from 2019’s score of 46.18 to its current 33.35 score.

“This year, they were seeing that across all systems. There is a difference between pre-pandemic [numbers]. We’re going to get back up and pass that,” Dr. Marni Kirkland, the CCSD assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, said.

High-school-level 2022 readiness scores, factors its literacy scores, pathway completion data and accelerated enrollment data.

While the elementary and middle schools took a few hits, Colquitt County High School’s performance seems to remain consistent. CCHS’s current readiness score of 72.4 is just one point below the state. The school’s previous 2019 score of 71.6 was 2.9 points below the state.

The state’s high school literacy score was 56.73 just over CCHS’s 54.09. In 2019, the school received a 56.95 for literacy. Pathway completion decreased to 71.46, while CCHS accelerated enrollment 91.70 score surpassed the state’s 85.36.

Kirkland explained, “To me, from an instructional standpoint, the readiness scores are a direct relation to content mastery and how they did on [tests] last year. We took that information, and we found a better reading curriculum. We’re instructing our teachers better so that these scores go up.”

The district has implemented a new reading curriculum that will pinpoint what students are efficient in and what they need to improve on. Teachers are implementing more small groups during class time and are undergoing training on data.

“The new curriculum plan requires students to engage in reading more than any other activity. But when there’s a problem, we get down to small groups,” she added.

The new curriculum plus the periodical MAP Growth tests – that measure a student’s achievement in K-12 math, reading, language usage and science – will help teachers and parents manage a personalized progress plan for their student.

State School Superintendent Richard Woods issued a statement in a recent press release.

“Georgia will continue to remain laser-focused on academic recovery,” Woods said. “We know the pandemic had an undeniable impact on student learning – it’s our role, responsibility, and privilege moving forward to ensure districts and schools have the resources they need to continue investing in students and combatting the effects of lost learning opportunities. Georgia’s teachers, students and the rest of our public education family have already worked incredibly hard to get learning back on track, and I am entirely confident in their ability to continue those efforts.”