Rockdale County Public Schools show steady improvements in 2024 College Career Readiness Index

CONYERS, G. – Rockdale County Public Schools (RCPS) made significant gains in several areas within the elementary, middle, and high school levels of the College and Career Readiness Index (CCRPI), according to data recently released by the Georgia Department of Education. 

This is based on students’ performance on the 2024 Georgia Milestones Assessments administered during spring 2024. The CCRPI components consist of Content Mastery, Progress, Closing Gaps, Readiness, and Graduation Rate for high schools.

At the elementary school level, RCPS saw gains in the Content Mastery, Progress, Closing Gaps* and Reading Readiness components over last year.

Middle schools increased in Content Mastery and exceeded the state average. Middle schools increased in Closing Gaps* and remained steady with less than one percentage point change in Progress and Readiness.

For high schools, gains were made in Content Mastery, Progress, Closing Gaps,* Readiness, and Graduation Rate.

The RCPS 2024 Four-Year Cohort Graduation Rate of 88.75% is the highest ever recorded since the state adopted the federal cohort calculation method in 2012. As a high school CCRPI indicator, the district’s Four-Year Cohort Graduation Rate is multiplied by 66.67% then added to the Five-Year Cohort Graduation Rate multiplied by 33.33% to determine the overall graduation rate for CCRPI reporting purposes.

“Our gains across the CCRPI indicators affirm that we are focused on continuous improvement in student learning, achievement, and growth,” said RCPS Superintendent Terry Oatts. “We are making steady progress at all grade levels, and I am proud of the hard work of our students, teachers, administrators, and support staff.”

“I am pleased to see we’re making gains at all levels,” said Rockdale County Board of Education Chairwoman Pam Brown. “As a district, we are committed to continuous improvement, and our gains on our CCRPI indicators reflect continuous improvement.”

In its press release, the Georgia Department of Education explained changes made to the CCRPI accountability system.

The CCRPI no longer includes an overall, 0-100 score for schools, districts, or the state. This change was first implemented in 2022 under an addendum received from the U.S. Department of Education and made permanent this year under an amendment to Georgia’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan.

Each CCRPI component – Content Mastery, Progress, Closing Gaps, Readiness, and Graduation Rate for high schools – still has a 0-100 score. The change was made to increase transparency and provide a more complete picture of school performance, ensuring that challenges and opportunities are not hidden behind a single score.

Legislation passed in 2024 requires the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) to calculate a single score for schools and districts, and for GaDOE and local school districts to publish these scores online. GaDOE will publish GOSA single scores as soon as they are available.

While RCPS reports gains in Closing Gaps, the Closing Gaps component is not comparable between 2023 and 2024, because the 2024 component does not include mathematics scores, since math assessments were updated to align with the new K-12 Mathematics Standards first implemented during the 2023-24 school year.

About the CCRPI

Under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), each U.S. state is required to have a statewide accountability system that complies with federal requirements, providing information on how well schools are performing. The CCRPI meets that requirement in Georgia and satisfies requirements for school accountability in state law.

The CCRPI measures school, district, and state performance on five components:

• Content Mastery includes student scores on statewide assessments in English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.
• Progress measures how much growth students demonstrate in English language arts and mathematics and how well English learners are progressing toward English language proficiency.
• Closing Gaps measureshow well schools meet annual improvement targets for student subgroups.
• Readiness includes literacy scores; student attendance; the percentage of students succeeding in “beyond the core” instruction; accelerated enrollment; pathway completion; and measures of college and career readiness.
• Graduation Rate includes both the four- and five-year graduation rate and is a component for high schools.