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Dear Editor:
In last week’s LON, Mark Engel reported on the Greene County Board of Education (BOE) meeting last week that released the schools’ Georgia Milestone test results.
After reporting that the BOE’s mood was “upbeat,” he proceeded to report many reasons why we shouldn’t be—focusing on historical results and results downstream in the middle and high schools. I’d like to explain why we are more than upbeat about our results.
Five years ago, we were determined to improve academics at Greene County’s conventional school system. We put together a comprehensive Strategic Plan with input from hundreds of citizens—and we came to the collective realization, backed by much research, that to improve the whole system from Pre-K through 12th grade, we had to start at the beginning of the pipeline. Other schools in our state like LOA and Oconee County knew this and put in place seamless processes in their PK-5 Elementary Schools.
So, we decided to concentrate on the beginning (while not ignoring the rest of the pipeline). We consolidated our two K-8 systems into one—allowing us to focus our resources on the beginning of the pipeline. We tried to restructure into a PK-5 system, but facilities would only permit us to set up a semi-seamless Primary School for PK-3, and we had to put the fourth and fifth graders in the middle school. So, three years ago, we placed our bets on this plan and launched the Greene County Primary School (GCPS)—giving it our best shot. WE ARE UPBEAT BECAUSE THE BET PAID OFF!
WE ARE UPBEAT BECAUSE THE BET PAID OFF!
The Milestones showed us this. Our Primary School third graders, with only the benefit of three of the five years of the new system and despite the onset of COVID, have turned in results even better than we hoped for. Our collective score for our third graders rose to 43%, meeting “proficient or exceeds” test levels, compared with 32% at Putnam County. We were better than the state average of 40% and continually closing gaps between our district and other schools in our local region. In ALL cases, we had improved our third grader test scores relative to the other schools by 20 to 35 points from pre-COVID results in 2019.
We can’t wait to see what these third graders accomplish as they move up the pipeline with their much-improved basic literacy/math capability—and we are looking forward to what we believe will be even better results when we launch the new PK-5 elementary school. Meanwhile, we have implemented individualized learning plans in all grades and a STEM approach at our middle school, and we are measuring our progress throughout the year using NWEA testing to hold ourselves accountable. Every child has an adult advocate, and at the high school, under the leadership of Dave Thillen, we have a career coaching program where we are bringing in 130 accomplished coaches to meet with students. These coaches engage in a four-year-plus coaching relationship that promises a dramatic positive effect on our students. There are many other positive initiatives that are underway, and the future is looking bright for the Greene County School System! If you do not believe me, just ask a principal for a tour and see for yourself. Mike Lynch
Mike Lynch, Chairman, Greene County Board of Education