GREENE COUNTY
The successful resolution of the charter renewal for Lake Oconee Academy seems to have quelled the concerns cited over months of negotiation between LOA and the Greene County Board of Education.
By all signs and expressions of gratitude by both the LOA Board of Governors and members of the BOE present at the LOA Governors meeting this week, it is clear there is a sigh of relief.
Chairman Michael Tompkins said it best, “We need to begin again the business of schooling children,” now that the charter awaits state approval.
The meeting covered recently released scores from the CCRPI (College and Career Ready Performance Index) from tests taken in May at LOA. By all indicators, LOA increased, in many cases, most of its scores. These scores and reports, accessible on the Georgia Department of Education website, help demonstrate how schools, districts, and the state are performing on important indicators. Initial reports from earlier in the year were shared at last year’s September meeting. The process does lag, however, as improvements and tactile approaches for improvement come on the heels of the scores release.
The CCRPI data is also based on the state’s milestones of assessments and includes scoring in math, American history, biology, and algebra at designated class levels. The scoring is a composite of both end-of-course and end-ofyear testing and includes content mastery, closing the gaps on deficiencies, and career readiness, all areas showing that both LOA and BOE schools are improving and exceeding in some cases the state’s average.
The report shows that, despite a slight drop in graduation rates at LOA, all three indicators of performance have exceeded the state average, positioning the school as a top performer.
Content mastery, a measure to see whether students are achieving at the level necessary to be prepared for the next grade, college, or career, increased from last year of 77.3% to 84.5% in the elementary grades; 73% to 74% in the middle schools, and 81.7% to 84.3% at the high school level.
According to Brad Bowling, executive director of LOA, the results underscore the hard work teachers apply in the classroom at all levels.
“We increased our content mastery scores at all levels,” he said. “This is extremely important because it helps us to understand how kids are performing against state standards. It also shows our goal-oriented focus to move students to distinguished learners here at LOA.”
Progress indicators address how much growth students are demonstrating in English language arts and mathematics. These scores utilize scoring weights, levels one through four with four being the highest as a distinguished learner.
The others are beginning learners, developing learners, and proficient learners.
Readiness scores showed an increase from 83% percent to 90.4% percent at the elementary level and 82.5% percent to 91.1% percent in middle school. High school numbers showed a small decline from 91.2% percent to 89.5% percent.
Much like the BOE schools reported earlier, it shows improvements needed in closing achievement gaps.
All school levels show an improvement with the elementary grades with both the elementary and middle schools showing the highest.
Thompkins and board consultant Otho Tucker expressed that expectations have always been high at LOA.
“We are always looking, despite our successes, at ways to improve,” Tompkins said. “Expectations are high; we are not there as yet but growing.”