Press Release

Cobb Fifth Graders Make Gains on Writing Test

Cobb County fifth graders showed strong improvement on the 2008 Georgia writing assessment, increasing both the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards, and their scale scores. Eighty-one percent of fifth graders in the Cobb County School District met or exceeded standards, a three-percent improvement from 2007. Scale scores in Cobb also improved, increasing by four points from 216 to 220. The percent passing topped the state average, and scale scores in Cobb were higher than both state and metro Atlanta averages (See Table I).

The 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 fifth graders as a whole was similar across all domains, ranging from 3.1 in Organization, Ideas, and Conventions to 3.2 in Style.
The performance of students in special populations (Special Education and English Language Learners) was a highlight of this year’s results (See Table II). The percentage of English Language Learners meeting or exceeding standards improved from 39 percent to 48 percent, while the percentage of Special Education students rose from 45 percent to 52 percent. Average scale scores for English Language Learners improved two points, from 187 to 189, while Special Education students improved their average score five points, from 190 to 195. A gap continues to exist between the performance of regular education students and students in these special populations, but 2008 scores indicate a marked improvement.

 “These results confirm what we have seen happening in schools as teachers work closely with students to teach the language arts standards,” said Superintendent Fred Sanderson. “We are seeing better performance for all students, and are especially pleased to see the gains in special populations.  We are continuing to address the gap between our regular education students and certain subgroups. Addressing these issues is critical for meeting No Child Left Behind standards on other assessments, as well. Language Arts supervisors will work with the schools to evaluate the results from the new assessment and develop plans for improvement.”
Thirty-seven of Cobb elementary schools topped the state scale scores.  Highest scores were posted by Tritt (251); Mount Bethel (249) and Timber Ridge (247). Eighteen Cobb schools reported more than 90 percent of students meet or exceed standards (Bullard, Chalker, Davis, Due West, Eastside, Ford, Frey, Kemp, Kennesaw Charter, Lewis, Mt. Bethel, Mountain View, Murdock, Rocky Mount, Shallowford Falls, Sope Creek, Timber Ridge, Tritt).

As a part of the statewide testing program, the Fifth Grade Writing Assessment was administered in March and requires students to write a composition on an assigned topic. The assessment provides fifth 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 Eighth Grade Writing Assessment.

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 Conventions.

The scale score range for the new Grade 5 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).

View the release in Adobe PDF format with all data tables.

# # #