APS Students Show Growth

This year’s scores indicate 33.3 percent of APS students scored proficient or above in ELA, compared to 31.2 percent in the 2021-2022 school year, while 28.7 percent scored proficient or above in Math, compared to 26 percent.

The higher scores were indicative of the consistent growth students showed on the District’s Measurement of Academic Progress (MAP) assessments, administered three times during the school year. MAP results are reviewed during the Student Outcomes Focused Governance (SOF-G) period of the monthly school board meetings.

The MAP assessments have shown that APS students are steadily improving coming out of the pandemic.

“Our teachers, administrators, and our students have all been working very hard through an unbelievably challenging and unprecedented time in our nation’s history,” APS Superintendent Dr. Lisa Herring said. “I am extremely proud of the fact that we can see where our efforts towards addressing the impact of learning disruptions are paying off.”

English Language Arts

(Results are rounded to the nearest whole number)

• Grades 3-8 showed a +2 percentage point gain in students scoring at proficient or above.
• Grades 3-5 showed a +4 percentage point gain in students scoring at proficient or above.
• Grades 6-8 showed a +2 percentage point gain in students scoring at proficient or above.
• Grades 3 and 5 each had the highest percentage point gains of +4  students scoring at proficient or above.

Math

(Results are rounded to the nearest whole number)

• Grades 3-8 showed a +3 percentage point gain in students scoring at proficient or above.
• Grades 3-5 showed a +5 percentage point gain in students scoring at proficient or above.
• Grades 3 and 5 each had the highest percentage point gains of +5  students scoring at proficient or above.

Additionally:

• 58 schools saw increases in the percent of students performing at or above proficient on the End-of-Grade ELA assessment compared to the 2021-2022 school year. The greatest increase was seen by Burgess-Peterson Academy, which improved from 53.4 percent to 67.0 percent.
• 56 schools saw increases in the percent of students performing at or above proficient on the End-of-Grade Math assessment. Atlanta Classical Academy showed the greatest increase, 57.6  percent to 71.4 percent.
• 27 schools saw increases in the percent of students performing at or above proficient on the End-of-Grade Science assessment, with John Lewis Invictus Academy showing the greatest increase, 7.4 percent to 23.1 percent.
• 15 schools saw increases in the percent of students performing at or above proficient on the End-of-Grade Social Studies assessment. The Kindezi School showed the greatest increase at 42.9 percent, up from 5.3 percent in 2021-2022.
• 4 schools saw increases in the percent of students performing at or above proficient on the American Literature and Composition Spring End-of-Course assessment with Atlanta Classical Academy achieving the highest increase at 93.9 percent, up from 75.0 percent.
• 14 schools saw increases in the percent of students performing at or above proficient on the Spring Algebra End-of-Course assessment. John Lewis Invictus Academy had the largest increase, 100 percent compared to 0 percent.
• 9 schools saw increases in the percent of students performing at or above proficient on the Spring Biology End-of-Course assessment, with Atlanta Classical Academy showing the greatest gain, 79.2 percent compared to 68.5 percent.
• 7 schools saw increases in the percent of students performing at or above proficient on the Spring U.S. History End-of-Course assessment. Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy showed the greatest improvement – 42.9 percent compared to 15.8 percent.

This coming school year, APS will continue its focus on the APS 5, which are five measurable methods to guide its academic strategy, based around the district’s five-year strategic plan: Data, Curriculum and Instruction, Whole-Child and Intervention, Personalized Learning, and Signature Programming. Additionally, the district will continue monitoring the plan’s progress and assessing, reviewing and making any adjustments based on the data. We will expand our efforts to focus on literacy and math in middle school as well as high school course content mastery.

“This is not a time for us to take a bow. Sustaining growth and gains is hard work,” Dr. Herring said. “But I have full faith and trust in the fact that APS has the most talented, hard-working and dedicated educators on the planet. I know we will succeed and our students will reap the benefits of that success, as they graduate fully prepared for college, career, and productive adult lives.”

Article courtesy of Metro Atlanta CEO, published July 31, 2023.