Today we're rolling out APSInsights.org, a new data website for Atlanta Public Schools. The new site uses many of the same visuals as the blog, but in a more accessible format and also includes additional features like school profiles and an enrollment and performance map. Please check it out and update your bookmarks or subscribe to the new blog.
For more information, visit the About APS Insights page, or see the district's press release.
Much thanks to all of our readers for using the APS data blog. This has been a rewarding project for sharing school data and we appreciate your time and feedback. We hope you'll join us on our next step!
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Monday, July 31, 2017
2017 Milestones Results
2017 Milestones results were
released on July 20, 2017. The visual below uses the publicly available files
from GADOE's website to show
achievement levels by school.
*Only grades 5
and 8 were administered social studies and science milestones in 2017.
Use the filters on the left to focus on a specific grade or subject, or to switch to elementary schools. Use the tab at the top to switch to End of Course exams (high school). The End of Course results include all test administrations that occurred throughout the year. Since this view was created with the state data files, users can also use the "System" filter to view data for other districts.
The graph is
sorted by the percentage of students scoring at the beginner level, but the
relative ranking changes if a different category is used. Atlanta Classical
Academy, which is our middle school with the lowest poverty rate, has the
highest percent of students scoring above beginner. However, Inman middle
school has a much larger percentage of students who reach the
distinguished level. Achievement results tend to be highly correlated with
family income- see our previous post on poverty and test scores.
The achievement level view is great for understanding how students compare to state standards and to other APS schools. The description of each state achievement level is available here. For a summary of overall APS performance, see the superintendent's blog.
The next view converts average test scores for each school into a state percentile. This view is more helpful for comparing performance over time, across grades and subjects, and to the rest of the state.
The percentiles
show a school's relative position among all Georgia schools. For example, at
Burgess-Peterson they were in the 79th percentile for 4th grade math. This
means their average scale score is as high or higher than 79% of schools in
Georgia. This is up from 57 in 2016. For a more detailed description of the
percentile view, see our
previous percentile post.
Note that the EOG percentiles view does not include advanced math and science students in eight grade who took an EOC, but they can be found on the EOC tab. This causes schools with a large advanced programs like Inman to have a lower 8th grade math or science percentile on the EOG view.
To see more
updates on district Milestones results, follow us on
twitter or use the e-mail
subscription on the left.
Monday, February 13, 2017
2016 Milestones Results by Subgroup
The visual below shows Georgia Milestones results by subgroup. The filters on the left allow comparisons by district, school, exam, subgroup, and year. The default view compares subgroups by the percentage of students who scored developing or better on ELA and Math exams.
"Developing" refers to the Milestones category that indicates partial proficiency. Mouse over the details icon to see other definitions, such as "ELL". Data for this visual comes from public files provided by the Governor's Office of Student Achievement1.
The acronym, "FRL" is "Free or Reduced Lunch", which allows us to see how low-income students perform. At APS schools that use the community eligibility provision (CEP) all students are marked as FRL in Milestones reporting regardless of actual status. FRL subgroup results are not displayed for these schools.
These graphs can be used to show striking differences. For example, see the gaps in proficiency rates by race below.
Information about income gaps in the city provide helpful context for this graph. The image below, from The Upshot, shows the relationship between socioeconomic status and student achievement by school district and race. Atlanta Public Schools has one of the largest family income gaps by race in the entire country.
Regardless of the root causes, the visual representation of the gap demonstrates the need for improvement. To learn about specific strategies at APS, read about our School Turnaround Strategy.
Let us know on Twitter if you use these visuals to learn something new about your school or district.
1. GOSA Milestones data files include results from summer retests. If a student did better on the summer retest, that score is included in the average. GADOE Milestones data files do not include summer retest results, so achievement levels in the GOSA file are sometimes slightly higher. For most schools the difference is 0-1 percentage points. GOSA files were used because the GADOE files do not break out subgroup scores.
"Developing" refers to the Milestones category that indicates partial proficiency. Mouse over the details icon to see other definitions, such as "ELL". Data for this visual comes from public files provided by the Governor's Office of Student Achievement1.
The acronym, "FRL" is "Free or Reduced Lunch", which allows us to see how low-income students perform. At APS schools that use the community eligibility provision (CEP) all students are marked as FRL in Milestones reporting regardless of actual status. FRL subgroup results are not displayed for these schools.
These graphs can be used to show striking differences. For example, see the gaps in proficiency rates by race below.
Information about income gaps in the city provide helpful context for this graph. The image below, from The Upshot, shows the relationship between socioeconomic status and student achievement by school district and race. Atlanta Public Schools has one of the largest family income gaps by race in the entire country.
Regardless of the root causes, the visual representation of the gap demonstrates the need for improvement. To learn about specific strategies at APS, read about our School Turnaround Strategy.
Let us know on Twitter if you use these visuals to learn something new about your school or district.
1. GOSA Milestones data files include results from summer retests. If a student did better on the summer retest, that score is included in the average. GADOE Milestones data files do not include summer retest results, so achievement levels in the GOSA file are sometimes slightly higher. For most schools the difference is 0-1 percentage points. GOSA files were used because the GADOE files do not break out subgroup scores.
Friday, January 20, 2017
APS Enrollment Data 1994-2016
The visual below shows enrollment trends at APS for the past 23 years. Each data point is from the GADOE October FTE count. Use the filters on the right to select a school or grade, or the tabs at the top to pick a different view.
APS enrollment increased for the fourth consecutive year to 51,927 students. To learn more about the types of insights available in this visual, see our enrollment blog post from last year.
APS enrollment increased for the fourth consecutive year to 51,927 students. To learn more about the types of insights available in this visual, see our enrollment blog post from last year.
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
2016 Student Growth Percentiles
The Georgia Department of Education (GADOE) calculates Student Growth Percentiles (SGP) for students who take the Milestones exams. SGPs indicate how much a student's achievement grew compared to academically similar peers. To calculate a 2016 SGP score, a student is grouped with other students with similar 2015 and 2014 scores, and then given a percentile rank based on how their 2016 score compares.
GADOE then uses SGP data to find the percentage of students making typical or high growth by school and district. "Typical or high growth" is defined as an SGP of at least 35. The state average percentage of students making typical or high growth is 65% (100 - 35).
The visual below shows the percentage of students making typical or high growth by grade and subject, using SGP results from GADOE. Use the filter on the left to choose a different school or district, or the tabs at the top to switch to high school or district-level views.
In this example, we can see that students at Inman Middle School show progress at rates above the state average in most grades and subjects. Seventh grade social studies was a relative weakness in 2014, but has since recovered to near the state average. Overall, math is a relative strength, where 80% of students are achieving typical or high growth.
This visual is helpful for schools or districts to use root-cause analysis. Working with other school or district leaders, identify which grade/subject combinations are high or low-performing, or have seen significant change. Then discuss the causes of those notable data points, and how that information can be used for future improvement.
The typical or high growth calculation is also used to determine progress points on the CCRPI. However, the CCRPI only includes "full academic year" students, while the SGP data files include all tested students. The results used for CCRPI progress points might vary from the SGP files by a few points but they show the same trends.
Confidence intervals1 are displayed as blue bands. Similar to the margin of error in a poll, the confidence interval tells us the range of possible values, but the middle value is most likely. Schools or districts with few students will have wide confidence intervals; large schools and districts have more precise growth estimates so their confidence intervals will be smaller.
Although progress data is very helpful for understanding school performance it does not give a complete picture. It is also important to consider overall achievement. This is especially true in elementary school, where progress is only measured in two of the six grade levels. A helpful compliment to the progress data is the Milestones versus Challenge Index graph below. This compares achievement for schools with similar populations, and better accounts for learning that occurred before 4th grade.
For more details on this visual, see our post from last year. This year mobility has been added to the challenge index because it adds additional predictive power2. Mouse over the details mark for more information on the new challenge index calculation.
(1) Confidence intervals are calculated at the 95% level using the standard error of the sample mean. This is only one of two sources of uncertainty. Each student SGP score is also an estimate and has associated uncertainty, but is not available to us. Hence, the confidence intervals are an underestimate of the total uncertainty. We compensate for this by using a relatively large confidence interval- 95%.
(2) Mobility improved R-square from 93.3 to 94.4 for elementary schools. Charter schools are not included because of different mobility patterns due to grade bands and school zones. Similar graphs that include charters for 2016 can be found at the bottom of this article.
GADOE then uses SGP data to find the percentage of students making typical or high growth by school and district. "Typical or high growth" is defined as an SGP of at least 35. The state average percentage of students making typical or high growth is 65% (100 - 35).
The visual below shows the percentage of students making typical or high growth by grade and subject, using SGP results from GADOE. Use the filter on the left to choose a different school or district, or the tabs at the top to switch to high school or district-level views.
This visual is helpful for schools or districts to use root-cause analysis. Working with other school or district leaders, identify which grade/subject combinations are high or low-performing, or have seen significant change. Then discuss the causes of those notable data points, and how that information can be used for future improvement.
The typical or high growth calculation is also used to determine progress points on the CCRPI. However, the CCRPI only includes "full academic year" students, while the SGP data files include all tested students. The results used for CCRPI progress points might vary from the SGP files by a few points but they show the same trends.
Confidence intervals1 are displayed as blue bands. Similar to the margin of error in a poll, the confidence interval tells us the range of possible values, but the middle value is most likely. Schools or districts with few students will have wide confidence intervals; large schools and districts have more precise growth estimates so their confidence intervals will be smaller.
Although progress data is very helpful for understanding school performance it does not give a complete picture. It is also important to consider overall achievement. This is especially true in elementary school, where progress is only measured in two of the six grade levels. A helpful compliment to the progress data is the Milestones versus Challenge Index graph below. This compares achievement for schools with similar populations, and better accounts for learning that occurred before 4th grade.
(1) Confidence intervals are calculated at the 95% level using the standard error of the sample mean. This is only one of two sources of uncertainty. Each student SGP score is also an estimate and has associated uncertainty, but is not available to us. Hence, the confidence intervals are an underestimate of the total uncertainty. We compensate for this by using a relatively large confidence interval- 95%.
(2) Mobility improved R-square from 93.3 to 94.4 for elementary schools. Charter schools are not included because of different mobility patterns due to grade bands and school zones. Similar graphs that include charters for 2016 can be found at the bottom of this article.
Thursday, December 8, 2016
2016 CCRPI Results
The Georgia Department of Education released 2016 CCRPI
results today (12/8). The district overall score decreased 1.8 points from 67.0
to 65.2. Similarly, the overall score for the state of Georgia fell 1.9
points from 75.5 to 73.6.
The view below is created using the state's results file and includes all Georgia public schools and districts. It is currently filtered to compare APS' 2015 and 2016 results by grade band and CCRPI component, highlighting that in each grade band APS maintained Achievement points but lost some ground in Progress points.
Use the filters to compare results across Georgia districts or schools. When looking at district results, set the school filter to "All Schools". The "Schools Comparison" tab shows 2016 results for all APS schools and gains or losses over 2015 scores. Use the "Components" filter to see how schools resort based on individual CCRPI components.
Visit the GADOE CCRPI page for more information about CCRPI and to view detailed score reports. See more APS results, including Progress Point trends on our data report, or read the superintendent's blog.
The example below shows how the data visual can be used to view a school’s trend over time. Cleveland Elementary School has consistently grown their CCRPI since 2013, and earned 40 progress points in 2016, the maximum possible amount. Progress points are a useful component because they measure how much student achievement grew during the year, taking into account their scores from the previous year. Also note that the state’s CCRPI calculation changed in 2015 so progress became a larger component.
The next example shows how the data visual can be used to make cross-district comparisons. District-level elementary school CCRPI scores are displayed for six large metro Atlanta districts. Gwinnett County earned the most progress points of the six districts in 2016 and had the highest overall score.
CCRPI Components
Visit the GADOE CCRPI page for more information about CCRPI and to view detailed score reports. See more APS results, including Progress Point trends on our data report, or read the superintendent's blog.
The example below shows how the data visual can be used to view a school’s trend over time. Cleveland Elementary School has consistently grown their CCRPI since 2013, and earned 40 progress points in 2016, the maximum possible amount. Progress points are a useful component because they measure how much student achievement grew during the year, taking into account their scores from the previous year. Also note that the state’s CCRPI calculation changed in 2015 so progress became a larger component.
CCRPI Components
Each school receives an overall Single Score. Each grade band within a school receives a CCRPI Score. These scores are made up of four components: Achievement (50), Progress (40), Achievement Gap (10) and a max of 10 Challenge Points. Challenge points include ED/EL/SWD Performance and Exceeding the Bar. Scores prior to 2015 should not be directly compared to scores from 2015 and later due to changes in calculations.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
2016 Graduation Results
Graduation rates for cohort 2016 were released today (11/1). The view below shows the percentage of four-year graduates by school and district (orange).
Overall, the district graduated 71.1 percent of its students in four years. This is compared to 71.5 percent in 2015. State-wide, the graduation rate is 79.2 percent.
Use the "Select Cohort" filter in the upper left-hand corner to see graduation rates from previous school years. To see one school's rates for the past six years, click on the "School Trends" tab then use the "Select a School" filter.
Graduation rates for small APS schools that are now operating as one large school (Ex: Therrell Health, Law, and STEM) have been consolidated to more easily identify trends.
Overall, the district graduated 71.1 percent of its students in four years. This is compared to 71.5 percent in 2015. State-wide, the graduation rate is 79.2 percent.
Use the "Select Cohort" filter in the upper left-hand corner to see graduation rates from previous school years. To see one school's rates for the past six years, click on the "School Trends" tab then use the "Select a School" filter.
Graduation rates for small APS schools that are now operating as one large school (Ex: Therrell Health, Law, and STEM) have been consolidated to more easily identify trends.
Cohorts are based on the year students first enter ninth grade. The graduation rate is the percentage of these students who graduate within four years, adjusting for transfers. Read what Superintendent Carstarphen has to say about APS grad rates on her blog, and get grad rates for all Georgia schools and districts here.
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