|
Eighth graders in the Cobb County School District had a strong
showing on the new Georgia writing assessment administered
earlier this year. Cobb students posted higher scale scores
and had a higher percentage of students meeting or exceeding
standards than the state and metro Atlanta averages. Cobb
students had an average scale score of 215, compared to the
state average of 207 and a metro average score of 209.
District administrators were especially pleased to see that 77
percent of all Cobb students met or exceeded standards, a
higher rate than their metro and state peers’ performance of
69 percent and 67 percent, respectively (Table 1). Because it
is a new test, results of the Eighth Grade Writing Assessment
for 2007 cannot be compared to previous years’ results but
will serve as a baseline from which to measure future growth.
The new writing assessment includes information about student
performance in different aspects of writing or domains. These
domains include ideas, organization, style, and conventions.
Domains are rated on a scale of 1 to 5. Performance of Cobb
students was similar across all domains, ranging from 2.9 in
organization to 3.1 in conventions.
While Cobb’s overall scores were strong, one concern with the
results is the gap that continues to exist between the
performance of regular education students and students in
special populations (Special Education or English Language
Learners). This same gap is apparent on other assessments at
both the state and district levels. The percentage of students
meeting and exceeding standards in both groups was
significantly smaller than in the regular education program
(Table II).
“This is a new test, but it has provided us with good
information,” said Superintendent Fred Sanderson. “I am proud
of our students’ performance, but it is also clear that we
need to address the gap between the regular education students
and certain subgroups. Addressing that issue will be critical
for meeting No Child Left Behind standards on other
assessments, as well. Writing is a cumulative skill and the
more students write the better their writing becomes. Language
Arts supervisors will work with the schools to evaluate the
results from the new assessment and develop plans for
improvement.”
A majority of Cobb schools topped the state scale scores, with
scores ranging from 198 to 241. Highest scores were for
Dickerson (241), Hightower Trail (233), and Mabry (232).
Several schools had more than 90 percent of students who met
or exceeded standards (Dickerson, Dodgen, Hightower Trail,
Mabry, Simpson).
As a part of the statewide testing program, the Eighth Grade
Writing Assessment was administered in January and requires
students to write a composition on an assigned topic. The
assessment provides eighth graders with a measurement of their
writing performance. This information can help students,
parents, and teachers understand areas where students may need
to focus their efforts to improve writing skills before taking
the writing portion of the Georgia High School Graduation Test
in their junior year.
Each student paper is scored by professionals who have been
trained to evaluate writing. Evaluators score student
compositions on four qualities of effective writing. These
qualities, or domains, of effective writing should be present
in a composition regardless of the topic. The domains include
ideas, organization, style, and convention.
The scale score range for the new Grade 8 Writing Assessment
is 100 to 350. Writing scores are reported in the following
performance levels: Does Not Meet (100-199), Meets (200-249),
and Exceeds (250-350).
Download the release and
individual school results in Adobe PDF format.
Released 4/24/2007 |
