Press Release

Cobb Students Top State, Metro Scores on Georgia High School Writing Test

Cobb County 11th-graders turned in a strong performance on the newly revised writing portion of the 2007 Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSWT), topping their state and metro Atlanta peers’ average scores. The test was administered in early September, and has been revised to reflect the current Georgia Performance Standards, or GPS. The 7,285 Cobb high school students tested attained a scale score of 221, two points higher than the average of metro Atlanta schools, and three points higher than the state average. The new scale used to measure achievement ranges from 100 to 350, with a score of 200 as “meets expectations,” and 250 as “exceeds expectations.” Ninety-two percent of Cobb high school students met or exceeded expectations on the test, which gauges writing skills considered essential for a high school diploma. (See Table I).

Cobb’s population of English Language Learners (ELL) and Students with Disabilities (SWD) performed well on the writing test. Fifty-five percent of ELL students tested in the district met or exceeded expectations, compared to just 51 percent across the state. Seventy-two percent of Cobb’s Students with Disabilities taking the test met or exceeded expectations, compared to just 54 percent of their peers statewide (see Table III).

Individual schools across the district fared well on the new test. At 11 of the district’s 17 high schools, 90 percent or more of the students met or exceeded expectations. Pope High School led all others with 98 percent of its students scoring at or above expectations, and Walton students were close behind with 96 percent of the students meeting or exceeding expectations,
(see Table I).

A passing score on the High School Graduation Test is one requirement for all students pursuing a high school diploma. The writing portion of the test was administered in September to Cobb County 11th grade students who were required to write a persuasive paper on an assigned topic. The GHSWT is two hours in length, with 100 minutes of student writing time.

Comparison of this year’s scores to prior years is not possible due to the transition from the former Quality Core Curriculum standards (QCC) to the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS). The GPS domains, or broad themes, covered by the writing test include Ideas, Organization, Style, and Convention. The Ideas domain measures the degree to which the writer establishes a controlling idea and elaborates the main points with examples, illustrations, facts or details. In the Organization domain, students are assessed on their ability to arrange ideas in a clear order consistent with the persuasive genre. Style points are awarded based on the writer’s ability to control language and engage the reader. The Conventions domain measures the degree to which the writer demonstrates control of sentence formation, usage, and mechanics. Test scores are ranked on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest. In each domain, Cobb 11th graders scored higher than their peers across the state (see Table II). At four high schools – Harrison, Lassiter, Pope and Walton – domain scores were consistently higher than averages for both the district and state (see Table II).

“These scores are a good sign that we are successfully making the transition to more rigorous performance standards in the district,” said Robert Benson, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction for the District. “Writing with purpose is an essential skill for all students."

In March, high school juniors will be tested on language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science portions of the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT). Students will have multiple opportunities to retake any portion(s) of the test they fail before graduation.

Click here to view PDF release with test reports.