BestAtlantaPublic School? Capitol View Elementary
Ranked Comparisons of APS elementary schools, according to data from 2007 reports of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
7/17/2007
Bryan Conley
Many of you will remember this chart of APS elementary schools from last year. We’re all excited to see documented achievement at our neighborhood schools. Those of us who have been involved with Capitol View Elementaryhave seen the test scores and have gotten to know the parents and teachers at Capitol View, visited the classrooms, learned about the enriched curriculum and seen student achievement recognized at PTA meetings, and we know why the students score so well.
Well, scores from the Spring 2007 tests are in, and Capitol View students tested better than every other APS school! (See the data below.)
And Capitol View wasn’t the only high-achieving school. In past years, I had limited my comparisons to what I considered Capitol Views peer schools, both by proximity and high scores. This year, I extended the comparison to include as well all APS schools that achieved 90% Meet/Exceed. Sixteen schools made 90% or better, not just Buckhead schools, not just the schools we always hear about.
The chart shows the percentage of tested students who “Meet and Exceed” competency standards for their grades, as measured by Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests in Math, and in Reading/English Language Arts. Students can score at three levels:Basic/not meeting standard; Proficient/Meeting standard; Advanced/Exceeding standard. What is generally reported for comparison is the “Meet plus Exceed” percentage. As an example, data for Capitol View show that 99% of tested students either met or exceeded their grade level standard for Math, while about 1% of students did not meet the standard.
As a quality comparison, I’ve broken out the “Exceed” percentages, for the school as a whole, and also for students at the school who are considered Economically Disadvantaged. I think it’s important to see what percentage of children are doing “Advanced” work for their grade level, and also to see how students with fewer advantages perform compared to their whole school. (I think there are important questions in this data. For example, what does it say if a well-regarded school like Morningside can get 58% of all its students to score at the Advanced level -- but only 16% of its disadvantaged students? Disadvantaged students make up only 12% of the school; why shouldn’t they score at the Advanced levels in rates similar to their classmates?)
I’ve pulled these comparisons from GeorgiaDepartment of Education reports of Adequate Yearly Progress for 2006-2007. Reports for all Atlantaschools are at
Please note that these percentages are combined scores for entire schools, for all grades tested. Comparison reports that are published in local newspapers (for example, the March 9-15, 2007Education Guide of the Atlanta Business Chronicle) often will report scores from a single grade: 4th grade for elementary, 8th grade for middle, SATs for high schools. Those scores will be different than scores reported for the whole school.
Also, while this data is drawn from 2007 Georgia DOE data, there is a more comprehensive level of data, broken for grade levels, still to come through The Georgia Report Card. On this report, you’ll find exhaustive statistics for each school, breakdowns by grade, comparisons with previous years, reports on demographics, teacher tenures, etc. The 2007 Report Cards are still in process, but 2006 reports for all Georgia schools can be found at:
School Year 2006-2007CRCT scores
APS elementary schools / Meet & Exceed Math
(All) / Exceed
Math
(All) / Exceed
Math
(Econ.
Disadv.) / M&E
Read
(All stdnts) / Exceed
Read
(All) / Exceed
Read
(Econ.
Disadv.)
Capitol View (SW) / 99.0 / 52.5 / 50.5 / 97.5 / 65.8 / 64.5
Brandon (Buckhead) / 98.5 / 75.2 / 45.0 / 97.6 / 67.6 / 20.0
Venetian Hills (Southwest) / 98.4 / 53.9 / 53.4 / 97.3 / 62.5 / 62.7
Smith (Buckhead) / 97.7 / 67.9 / 36.4 / 98.0 / 64.1 / 25.8
Jackson (Buckhead) / 97.6 / 72.7 / 36.0 / 97.4 / 58.4 / 26.0
Toomer (Kirkwood SE) / 97.4 / 70.1 / 68.8 / 94.8 / 49.4 / 51.6
F.L. Stanton (SW) / 94.6 / 54.5 / 52.4 / 96.9 / 70.1 / 69.0
Morningside (NE) / 94.1 / 57.7 / 15.9 / 96.5 / 61.5 / 20.5
M.A. Jones (SW) / 94.0 / 32.6 / 31.0 / 89.1 / 28.8 / 27.5
Mary Lin (Candler Pk) / 93.3 / 51.8 / 31.4 / 94.4 / 45.1 / 21.4
West Manor (SW) / 92.8 / 24.6 / 17.1 / 92.8 / 30.8 / 24.3
Whitefoord (Edgewood) / 92.5 / 23.6 / 24.1 / 92.8 / 31.9 / 31.0
EastLake (SE) / 91.6 / 23.4 / 24.0 / 89.7 / 23.8 / 23.4
Fickett (Ben Hill SW) / 91.3 / 45.2 / 42.6 / 90.1 / 34.6 / 32.2
Blalock (NW) / 90.4 / 36.3 / 37.1 / 90.4 / 36.3 / 37.1
Beecher Hills (SW) / 90.0 / 37.1 / 34.3 / 89.3 / 33.9 / 28.3
Parkside (Grant Pk) / 88.4 / 30.0 / 24.8 / 85.7 / 28.5 / 22.1
Cascade (SW) / 88.0 / 21.1 / 20.8 / 88.0 / 29.7 / 28.3
Cook (Mem. Dr./GSU) / 87.3 / 38.2 / 38.3 / 88.7 / 29.9 / 29.3
Rivers (P-tree Battle) / 87.0 / 34.2 / 23.2 / 86.8 / 32.3 / 14.9
Garden Hills (Buckhead) / 86.8 / 19.5 / 7.7 / 82.1 / 21.4 / 9.6
Centennial (Techwood) / 85.8 / 25.2 / 19.5 / 90.8 / 29.1 / 16.5
Gideons (Pittsburgh) / 85.7 / 45.0 / 42.2 / 87.8 / 36.0 / 33.9
C.W. Hill (Old 4th) / 85.3 / 25.7 / 25.6 / 91.2 / 27.6 / 26.4
Connally (Cascade) / 84.1 / 21.0 / 20.3 / 86.0 / 21.3 / 20.3
Finch (OaklandCity) / 83.3 / 17.2 / 15.1 / 71.7 / 15.2 / 14.1
Benteen (SE) / 82.8 / 21.3 / 21.0 / 72.5 / 10.1 / 9.9
NeighborhoodCharterSchool (Grant Park) / 80.0 / 22.5 / 9.7 / 93.3 / 32.5 / 9.7
Hope (MLK district) / 77.6 / 13.1 / 13.0 / 74.8 / 14.5 / 12.0
Stanton (Peoplestown) / 74.2 / 13.2 / 12.8 / 72.2 / 12.3 / 12.2
Drew Charter / 73.7 / 16.7 / 15.2 / 85.8 / 18.4 / 15.8
Perkerson (Sylvan Hills) / 72.9 / 18.1 / 18.8 / 75.8 / 17.4 / 17.8
AtlantaUniv. Community Acad. Charter (West End) / 72.1 / 19.2 / 17.0 / 80.2 / 13.7 / 12.6