The Georgia Department of Education has released its annual report card of how public school districts, like Bulloch County Schools, are helping students progress and achieve academically.
About the College & Career Ready Performance Index
The College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) measures five key areas: students’ academic content mastery, students’ academic progress (growth), how gaps in student achievement are being closed (closing the gap), high school graduation rates, and students’ readiness for the workforce or post-secondary education. Each CCRPI component is reported with a 0-100 score. An overall score for CCRPI is no longer reported. The full scores are available online at ccrpi.gadoe.org/Reports.
Elementary Schools
Bulloch County Schools performed slightly lower than the state elementary score in Content Mastery, Closing Gaps, and Readiness. However, in all four components, Bulloch County Schools’ elementary school scores increased from 2023 to 2024. Bulloch County Schools’ highest gains were with elementary school Progress where students’ academic growth resulted in a score of 91.0, higher than the state score of 86.2, and it was a 9.3 point gain over last year’s score of 81.7. Continuing to show improvement, seven of the district’s nine elementary schools showed gains in Content Mastery and Progress. Six out of the district’s nine elementary schools showed gains in Closing Gaps and Readiness.
The school district’s work to align its instructional practices across the district, especially in phonics and reading instruction, and an intentional focus on addressing specific skills deficits with targeted interventions is proving successful. All subgroups of students in grades three through five met the state’s academic targets in English Language Arts, with Julia P. Bryant, Mill Creek, Nevils, and Stilson elementary schools each posting double-digit gains in this area.
Every elementary school in the district exhibited increased student progress in math with the exception of Mattie Lively Elementary School, who maintained its perfect 100% progress in math. New state math standards were implemented this school year, so these positive results speak to the impact of teachers participating in two years of professional learning provided by district staff prior to the new standards being implemented. After COVID, the district has also helped teachers focus on differentiating instruction by meeting students at their skill level and progressing from that point to further help close any gaps in students’ knowledge.
Four elementary schools in Bulloch County were recognized by the state for being either a Literacy Leader Award School or a Math Leader Award School based on their students’ exceptional achievement or growth in either mathematics or English language arts on the Georgia Milestones tests. Julia P. Bryant Elementary, Mattie Lively Elementary, and Stilson Elementary were recognized as Literacy Leaders for either their percentage of student reading at or above grade level or growth in the percentage of students reading at or above grade level. A total of 324 schools were identified as Literacy Leaders. Math Leader schools were recognized for achievement or growth in the percentage of students scoring at the proficient learner level or above in mathematics. A total of 624 schools in the state met these qualifications including Bulloch County’s Nevils, Brooklet, and Stilson elementary schools.
Additional Targeted Support & Improvement Schools
The Georgia Department of Education announced in January that Langston Chapel Elementary and Stilson Elementary are two of 78 public schools on the state’s Additional Targeted Support and Improvement Schools list (ATSI), a designation they will have for the next three years through 2026, when the schools will be re-evaluated for possible removal. Both schools were identified due to the academic performance of their third through fifth-grade students with disabilities on the 2023 Georgia Milestones Assessments.
Prior to being identified as ATSI schools, both LCES and SES were identified by the district as schools needing additional support. Through the district’s School Improvement Process, both schools were able to identify areas of concern and develop and implement initiatives to make improvements in student achievement. Because both schools began working on these initiatives before being identified by the state as an ATSI school in January 2024, the impacts of these initiatives are already showing improved results in their 2024 CCRPI scores.
At both schools, the faculty embraced the implementation of both professional development in Teacher Clarity and specially designed instruction (SDI) for students with individualized education plans. This year Stilson led the district in score improvements, achieving remarkable growth in Content Mastery, Closing the Gaps, Overall Readiness, Reading At or Above Grade Level, and Student Attendance. Its students achieved the district's highest gains in English Language Arts and Math, with scores rising to 58.18 (up 19.05 points) and 59.85 (up 14.24 points), respectively. They also posted a 10.42-point growth in Science, scoring 47.7.
Likewise, Langston Chapel Elementary made progress in English Language Arts (+2.85%) and Math (+6.14%) for Content Mastery and made improvement in Overall Progress for both subjects as well. There is a noticeable improvement in LCES’s Closing Gaps for English language arts with subgroups making progress and exceeding their targets. Overall, LCES increased by 1.9% in Readiness which includes at or above grade-level reading, student attendance, and beyond the core; however, there is still work to be done.
These successes are an indication of how proactive, early district-level interventions coupled with the schools’ dedicated efforts to implement their improvement plans with fidelity, can improve student achievement. This work drives academic growth, which is particularly evident for Stilson, who won both the state's Math and Literacy Leader Awards.
Middle Schools
At the middle school level, Bulloch County Schools performed lower than the state middle school score in Content Mastery and Readiness. Bulloch County Schools outperformed the state middle school scores for Progress and Closing Gaps and made gains in Content Mastery, Progress, and Closing Gaps. All four middle schools individually increased Content Mastery scores, while only two of the four schools showed increases in Progress, Readiness, and Closing Gaps.
New mathematics standards were implemented across the state during the 2023-2024 school year. Bulloch County’s district staff provided teachers with two years of professional learning to prepare for implementation of the new standards. As a result, every middle school in the district showed growth in math Content Mastery. Additional efforts to provide personalized interventions at the middle school level through the district’s Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) specifically in the area of reading resulted in all four middle schools showing growth in English Language Arts.
Langston Chapel Middle and Southeast Bulloch Middle Schools were recognized by the state as Math Leader schools for either their achievement or growth in the percentage of students scoring at the proficient learner level or above in mathematics.
High Schools
Bulloch County Schools outperformed the state high school score in two components of the CCRPI: Readiness and Graduation Rate. Bulloch County performed lower than the state high school score for Content Mastery and Progress and significantly lower in Closing Gaps.
Content Mastery scores at the high school level are based on scores from End of Course Assessments for American Literature, Algebra I, Biology, and United States History. Although Bulloch County Schools scored lower than the state in Content Mastery, a slight increase in Bulloch County’s overall score from 2023 in Content Mastery was evident. Most notable was a 8.87 increase in Content Mastery for Algebra I. Along with two years of professional development provided to Algebra I teachers to prepare for the implementation of new standards, most Bulloch County students are receiving a full year of math instruction, twice the amount of instruction a student would normally receive in a semester course, which contributed to the improvement shown in Algebra I. Bulloch County showed a slight decrease in Content Mastery for Biology, United States History, and American Literature.
Math Leader schools were recognized by the state for achievement or growth in the percentage of students scoring at the proficient learner level or above in mathematics. A total of 624 schools in the state met these qualifications including Southeast Bulloch High School.
Bulloch County Schools showed significant gains in Progress (+9.0) from 2023 (70.5) to 2024 (79.5), although not quite reaching the state high school Progress score of 82.7.
Bulloch County Schools, with a high school Closing Gaps score of 28.6, performed significantly lower than the state high school score for Closing Gaps, 81.7, which is a 41 point decrease from 2023.
The district’s overall graduation rate rose to 90%, which is 4.3 percentage points higher than the state’s rate of 85.7%. Bulloch’s overall graduation rate consists of its four-year rate, which was 89.68, an increase of .51 points over last year, and its five-year rate of 90.49, an increase of 1.48 points.
The district’s high school students are showing more readiness for life after graduation, with overall readiness scores improving by over 2% in the last year rising from 71.9 to 74.2 and exceeding the state’s score of 73.3. Readiness measures how prepared students are for their next steps after high school, including college, career, or other opportunities. These high school indicators of overall readiness include literacy, student attendance, accelerated enrollment, Career Technical & Agricultural Education (CTAE) pathway completion, and college and career readiness.
This shows that the district’s strong vocational and academic pathways are a key driver of readiness, preparing students for success after high school graduation. Bulloch County has remained committed to strengthening career readiness for high school students by expanding and increasing access to career pathways and dual enrollment options. The district now has 43 career pathways in local high-demand fields. Healthcare Science, Agricultural Mechanics, Construction, Early Childhood Education, Logistics, Culinary Arts, and Business & Technology pathways have the highest pathway completion rates, showcasing a strong alignment with local workforce needs and student interest. Notably, CTAE pathway completion increased from 72.71% to 80.30%, a jump of 7.59% from 2023 to 2024. Accelerated enrollment in post-secondary education also showed an increase of 5.25 percentage points across the county’s high schools from 2023-2024. Nearly 600 high school students are dual enrolled in local colleges and universities.
Conclusion
Prior to the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, utilizing the school improvement process, Tier 1 instruction was identified as an area of improvement across the district. District staff, in collaboration with school leaders, are providing Teacher Clarity training for all tested content areas to ensure implementation of a district-wide consistent and rigorous curriculum.
Bulloch County Schools remains committed to continuous improvement, particularly focusing on the areas of interventions for students through multi-tiered systems of support, literacy improvement through guided reading, support for faculty by providing dedicated time to meet in professional learning communities and professional development in teacher clarity, and student attendance interventions.
Note on Comparability of Scores
According to the Georgia Department of Education the Content Mastery, Progress, Readiness, and Graduation Rate components of the CCRPI are comparable between 2023 and 2024. The Closing Gaps component is not comparable between 2023 and 2024 because the 2024 component does not include mathematics scores, since math assessments were updated to align with the new K-12 Mathematics Standards first implemented during the 2023-24 school year.
