REPORT CARD: City schools score above average in several categories

Published 6:00 am Tuesday, October 22, 2019

In nearly every category, Athens City Schools scored above the state average on its annual report card released Friday by the Alabama State Department of Education.

Compared to last year, the district saw the biggest boost in its college and career readiness category, jumping nearly 37 points to an 88.36. The state average was only 75.05%.

Garner Ezell, director of curriculum and instruction for ACS, attributed the higher scores to the district’s work on preparing students for ACT exams and expanding its career tech program. Ezell explained students earning credentials from career tech programs is one of the readiness indicators evaluated by the state.

ACS’ overall score of 85 marked a five-point improvement over the 2017-2018 school year.

It was also one point above the state average of 84, with Athens also earning higher reading, math and science proficiency scores.

While ALSDE reported averages of 45.27% reading proficiency, 46.52% math proficiency and 38.87% science proficiency, Athens scored 50.79%, 49.8% and 45.39%, respectively. Scores were remarkably low across the state, with some districts earning scores in the high teens or low 20s.

“Unless it’s a 100 on everything, like any child in school or a parent looking at their child’s report card, we always want to be the very best,” ACS Superintendent Trey Holladay told The News Courier on Friday. “There’s always room for growth, always room for improvement.”

Ezell echoed the sentiment Monday.

“There are so many variables when you go into state testing,” Ezell said. “… It’s certainly going to be a focus as we move forward, to look at those and have conversations with our administrators to identify things that may be obstacles and … try to come up with possible solutions on what we can do to get (scores) higher.”

In regard to chronic absenteeism, Athens again showed it was above-average, reporting 7.38% against the state’s 11.17%. Athens Renaissance boasted the lowest absenteeism figures at only 0.78%, while Athens Intermediate held second-lowest at 4.15% and Athens Middle was third with 5.61%.

The district’s absenteeism rate was 2.39 points below last year’s.

Among the individual school report cards, SPARK Academy at Cowart Elementary School was the only one to score an A. Principal Beth McKinney said earning a 90 on their state report card affirmed they were on the right path.

“It’s an affirmation that focusing on the student learning experience is very powerful,” McKinney said. “… We do thematic units, and we do inquiry learning, which focuses on the child’s curiosity. We’ve tried to get away from a lot of the textbook learning and worksheets.”

The school has also focused on foundational math and helping students gain a conceptual learning of the subject, she said. This too paid off, as the school earned the highest math proficiency score in the district at 60.53%.

Visit https://bit.ly/EducationReportCard2 for a complete list of school, district and state scores.