MOULTRIE – The Colquitt County School Board received academic updates from Director of Curriculum Patricia Lirio and Secondary Education Director Dana Rollins last week, giving them a snapshot of the school system students’ progress.

Both of the educators presented slides with data that reflected the academic progress made by students, from second through eighth grades, as shown by the Measures of Academic Progress tests that are given three times a year.

The data included comparisons of grades from the years 2022 and 2023 to the current school year and also the change from year to year of the cohorts, which are a group of students that progress together through the same academic curriculum.

Lirio reported on Colquitt County’s elementary school students’ (2nd-5th) proficiency and projected proficiency for the Georgia Milestones Assessment System tests in English language arts and math. Proficiency in science, for fifth-graders, was also reported.

“When you look at fifth grade, you’ll notice we have double-digit increase in both areas. Not just fifth grade comparison to fifth grade but also that cohort. So, that’s a substantial gain,” she said in reference to an 11% increase from 2023 to 2024 and an 11.2% cohort increase in fifth-grade English language arts proficiency.

However, the Elementary Reading Status (at or above grade level) for the fourth grade students showed a cohort decrease of 7%.

“So, we’re a little concerned about that,” Lirio said and added that they were really paying close attention to what was happening with the fourth grade students.

Later in the meeting, School Board Member Trudie Hill wanted to know what Lirio attributed the decrease in the fourth grade’s cohort percentage for reading status to.

“So, some of our teachers were out on extensive leave, had medical leave and some absenteeism. When you take that into consideration, that’s a huge hurdle for teacher and the students to overcome for fourth grade,” Lirio responded.

In the Elementary Reading Status report for the fifth grade students, they once again, she said, had double-digit gains, which were a 12% gain from 2023 to 2024 and a 17% cohort gain.

“So those fifth grade students, 70% of our students, are at the ‘lexile’ (numeric representation of reading ability) score according to the state level,” she said.

Moving on to the Fall Measures of Academic Progress tests in English language arts data, she said, the third grade had an 8% cohort gain and both the fourth and fifth grades had a 7.9% cohort gain.

“So, when you’re talking about school improvement, you’re really kind of looking at a 3 to 5% gain. So, anything over 5%, we’re doing exceptionally well,” Lirio said.

The results for the Fall Measures of Academic Progress tests in Math data that she presented showed some percentage increase, from 2023 to 2024 across all grades. As far as the cohort data, third and fourth grade showed percentage increases but the fifth grade had decreased by 5.9%.

She said that there were a couple of more things that she wanted the board to know about the academic progress in the elementary grades.

“Foundational skills are teaching students how to read. So, we have increased our Kindergarten 13.5% from fall to fall and our first grade has been up by 4%,” Lirio said.

She went on to say that 69% of Colquitt County Schools’ kindergarteners were considered average to high level readers and 60% of the first graders were also on the average to high level.

“So they’re coming in at a whole lot better level than what we’ve seen in the past. I can only attest that to what our principals and the teachers are doing in their buildings,” she said.

Lirio told the board that Superintendent Dan Chappuis had been to a Regional Educational Service Agency meeting where data was shared that ranked the schools in the states.

She went on to say that, in the third grade category, they had two out of the five spots and in the fourth grade, they had one out of the five spots. She also said that the fifth grade had two out of the five spots in its category.

“So, we’re holding our own. If you were to ask who are some of the other districts in that top five. It’s Lowndes County. So, we’re starting to hold our own against Lowndes County,” Lirio said. “And I have to say, the group of people behind me, our principals and our teachers, are the reason that this is working.”

Board Chairman Hayden Willis asked if Colquitt County was still behind and Lirio responded, “Yes, sir, we are. We’re not nearly where we want to be but we’re definitely in the right direction.”

Going back to Hill’s concern about the fourth grade reading performance, Board Member Jon Schwalls asked Lirio what percentage of the fourth grade students were English as a Second Language students and she said that she could get that number to them.

“But it’s increasing every year. … But the other thing to please keep in mind is also our poverty level is also increasing,” she said and added that poverty and achievement went hand-in-hand.

Then, Rollins gave her report on the secondary students and said that the accomplishments that they see with the elementary grades have an impact on the secondary grades.

She reported that, in English language arts proficiency, both the eighth grade and American Literature had percent increases in the year-to-year comparisons and in the cohort percentages. The eighth grade showed an 8% increase and American Literature showed a 10% increase.

“Seventh grade was the only one that had a little decrease in scores. And our schools, they have a plan,” she said.

Rollins went on to say that, in seventh grade, they have an additional academic coach for English language arts, a better commitment to focus on the curriculum and a program for the lowest level students to help with literacy.

She said that there were similar improvements in reading status at or above grade level with the sixth grade showing an 8% increase and American Literature showing a 9% increase from 2023 to 2024.

“And while the seventh grade didn’t see an improvement for reading status from the previous seventh grade, they did have an increase from their previous year as sixth graders. As you see in the cohort change there. So they did improve by 13% with their reading status,” Rollins said.

She said that American Literature was fourth in their Regional Educational Service Agency rankings and that, in Biology, they ranked fifth.

“They were 4% above the RESA average and that was impressive, as well,” she added.

She said that, in science proficiency, there were improvement in both the eighth grade and Biology with an 8% and 10% increase respectively. She also reported that, in social studies, the eighth grade and US History had percentage increases.

“When we look at our MAP data, it’s not as impressive as our GMAS data was. And I attribute that to being secondary students and once they’ve taken assessments for a couple of years or a few years and they don’t get an immediate value attached to it, they don’t take it that seriously,” Rollins said.

She said that was reflected in the scores the board was seeing in English language arts but she noted that the sixth grade did have a 4% increase from 2023 to 2024. The data, however, showed that the seventh grade had a 14% cohort decrease in English language arts.

She said that in the Fall Measures of Academic Progress math test, the seventh grade had a 9% increase from 2023 to 2024 and there was a 2% increase in Algebra I. The data also showed a 10% cohort decrease in the eighth grade.

“Our teachers have met with students. They have set goals for their growth or how they will perform on the second math assessment,” she said and added that she knew they were going to see positive gains there.

She went on to say that the school offers incentives and awards for students that meet their goals, for teachers, or a team or grade levels that meet their goals.

“I look forward to seeing what our new year date shows for math and what our 2025 GMAS data will be,” Rollins said.