Timber Ridge Elementary School

East Cobb schools excel in 2018 Georgia Milestones results

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Timber Ridge Elementary School, East Cobb Schools, Georgia milestones
More than 98 percent of students at Timber Ridge Elementary School performed at Level 2 or higher in the Georgia Milestones, the highest figure in the Cobb County School District.

Several East Cobb schools led or did well in various categories of academic performance in the 2018 Georgia Milestones report.

The data was released Friday by the Georgia Department of Education, which collects test scores from public school districts to measure learning proficiency in grades 3-12.

The levels are 1-4. Level 1 is Beginning Learner, Level 2 is a Developing Learner, Level 3 is a Proficient Learner and Level 4 is Distinguished Learner.

The evaluations are based on End of Grade (EOG) tests at the elementary and middle school levels, and End of Course (EOC) tests at the high school level.

According to the Cobb County School District, 10 elementary schools had 94 percent or more of their students score between levels 2-4. Nine of them are in East Cobb: East Side; Garrison Mill; Davis; Mount Bethel; Mountain View; Murdock; Rocky Mount; Sope Creek; Timber Ridge; and Tritt.

At Timber Ridge, 98.1 of the students were between levels 2-4, the highest figure for a Cobb elementary school. The elementary EOG tests are in English Language Arts and math.

Among top performing middle schools, according to CCSD, were Dickerson (97.3), Dodgen (96.5) and Hightower Trail (96.9). Middle school students take EOG tests in English Language Arts, math, science and social studies.

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High school students are given End of Course (EOC) tests in eight courses in English Language Arts and math, as well as social studies and science.

Walton led Cobb high schools with a 97.1 score of students between levels 2-4, followed by Lassiter (96.4) and Pope (96.0).

Wheeler’s composite score of 83.3 is up 7.9 percent from 2017, one of the biggest improvements in the county.

Cobb schools said that the district-wide Level 2 or higher percentage for high school students is 84.9, much higher than the state average of 74.1 percent.

At the elementary/middle school level, 80.7 percent of Cobb students scored at Level 2 or higher, compared to 74.6 of all Georgia students.

For more information visit the Cobb school district’s Georgia Milestones resource page.

For detailed spreadsheets of grade- and school-level results and more, visit the Georgia DOE’s 2018 Milestone’s page.

 

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Timber Ridge Elementary School parents learn about cyber safety

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Timber Ridge Cyber Power

A counselor at Timber Ridge Elementary School has created a program that provides informational sessions with parents on issues such as cyberbullying and digital citizenship.

Joslin Maxwell recently held a “Cyber Power” session that informs school staff as well as parents. Here’s more from the Cobb County School District, which also submitted the photo above:

According to Maxwell, elementary schools like Timber Ridge can help parents prevent their children from falling prey to the negative aspects of the digital world.

“The Cyber Power event gave parents the tools to go home and put a cell phone contract and an Internet safety contract in place,” Maxwell added.

The school provided both contracts to the parents so they could outline cyber safety rules for their children now.

“You want to make technology routines and expectations a priority from the very beginning, or else there will inevitably be push back when parents asks their high school students to let them look at their phones,” the Timber Ridge counselor cautioned.

Timber Ridge is also boosting cyber awareness among parents by encouraging families to take part in the “Stack Challenge” and put down their phones, tablets and laptops, and plug-in to quality family time.

The goal of the “Stack Challenge” is to remind parents that their use of technology is the greatest example to their children. Maxwell said parents should be part of creating the “balance is best” practice when using technology in the home.

Many of the students Maxwell talked to about the challenge feared it would be a difficult task for their parents.

“When I talked to one of my fourth grade classes about the challenge, I had a student tell me that their mom needed her phone at all times because they were remodeling the kitchen, and she needed to be able to always look at the pictures of the tiles,” Maxwell recalled. “The added awareness of just how much we are all using our screens is a valuable take-away.”

According to the district, Timber Ridge will be having another parent night called Cyber Power 2.0 in May with Jeff Dess, the CCSD’s coordinator of prevention and intervention.

 

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East Cobb schools pace county results in 2017 CCRPI test scores

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Timber Ridge Elementary School, East Cobb schools, CCRPI
CCRPI scores at Timber Ridge Elementary are up almost 18 points from 2015.

Seven East Cobb schools surpassed the maximum scores in the latest CCRPI test results released Thursday by the Cobb County School District.

The CCRPI—which stands for College and Career Ready Performance Index—is a state accountability measure that gauges overall achievement results and how schools are preparing students for the next level of education.

The CCRPI is formulated on a 100-point scale as follows:

  • Overall achievement comprising 50 percent (based on Georgia Milestones Assessment System);
  • Student progress totaling 40 percent (Milestones results from year to year);
  • The remaining 10 percent related to closing the achievement gap (between the 25 percent lowest-performing students in a school or district compared to all Georgia students).

Students at all three K-12 levels are tested, and the full state CCRPI results are available at the Georgia Department of Education website.

At the elementary school level, Timber Ridge (100.5), Murdock and Sope Creek (100.3 each) led all of Cobb, earning what’s referred to as “challenge” points in such categories as improved results among subgroups of students and innovative measures at a school, the so-called Exceeding the Bar (ETB) score.

Three Cobb middle schools, all in East Cobb, also exceeded the 100 mark: Dickerson (103), Dodgen (101) and Hightower Trail (101.5).

At the high school level, Walton’s score of 101.1 led the county as well. The high school achievement score includes graduation rates.

Cobb’s overall CCRPI score of 82.9 was higher than the statewide average of 75. For the high-scoring schools in East Cobb, those results were among the best in Georgia.

Timber Ridge’s score of 100.5 not only was a gain of 5.8 percent from 2016, but it’s one of the highest in the state (Lake Windward, in north Fulton County, topped out at 104.5). Timber Ridge scored 47.1 on achievement, a perfect 40 in progress, and earned 3.4 challenge points.

In a statement, Jeffrey Castle, the Timber Ridge principal, attributed his school’s results to “a supportive parent community, engaged students and motivated, highly-capable teachers who have the education of the whole child as their main priority.

“Our focus last year was on progress, with implementation of computer-based reading intervention programs, and on intentional delivery of rigorous instruction and congruency among curriculum, assessments and instruction.”

All but two of the 21 East Cobb elementary schools had higher scores than 2016, but the drops by Kincaid and Sedalia Park were slight.

The biggest jump was at Powers Ferry, with a score of 72.3 representing a 14.5 percent increase from a year ago, the fourth largest boost among Cobb elementary schools.

Although the achievement score at Powers Ferry was 26 and its progress was at 37, the school reported a score of 8.3 (out of 10) in closing the achievement gap.

In a release, Cobb schools said that measuring year-to-year progress in 2017 is not exact because of some minor changes to how the CCRPI is formulated. At all levels, science and social studies were removed as indicators in the progress and achievement gap categories.

Elementary Schools

2017 Score Change from 2016
All of Cobb ES 80.5 +4.8
Addison 93.0 +5.3
Bells Ferry 89.3 +7.5
Blackwell 86.2 +6.8
Brumby 67.8 +7.1
Davis 87.5 +2.4
East Side 96.3 +4.5
Eastvalley 93.5 +5.8
Garrison Mill 96.8 +1.5
Keheley 88.7 +2.6
Kincaid 89.9 -0.9
Mt. Bethel 96.4 +1.4
Mountain View 99.7 +7.8
Murdock 100.3 +6.2
Nicholson 88.5 +11.2
Powers Ferry 72.3 +14.5
Rocky Mount 97.4 +5.0
Sedalia Park 68.9 -0.1
Shallowford Falls 88.0 +1.0
Sope Creek 100.3 +6.1
Timber Ridge 100.5 +5.8
Tritt 96.8 +6.0

Middle Schools

2017 Score Change from 2016
All of Cobb MS 82.0 +2.2
Daniell 77.9 -2.1
Dickerson 103.0 +4.3
Dodgen 101.0 +1.4
East Cobb 79.2 +3.6
Hightower Trail 100.5 +2.9
Mabry 91.3 0.0
McCleskey 82.5 -0.3
Simpson 89.9 +3.2

High Schools

2017 Score Change from 2016
All of Cobb HS 87.3 -0.9
Kell 85.8 -6.4
Lassiter 99.9 0.7
Pope 92.9 -6.5
Sprayberry 86.7 -2.0
Walton 101.2 -1.2
Wheeler 90.3 +1.7

 

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