Since 2012, Georgia has had a waiver from the requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). In this waiver, Georgia set Statewide and Subgroup Performance Targets for its statewide assessments and four-year cohort graduation rate. The targets were originally set for the 2011-2012 school year, and these targets were in effect for three years. In its 2015 waiver renewal, Georgia reset Performance Targets for both the graduation rate and statewide assessments, largely due to the transition to the Georgia Milestones Assessment System. As such, the targets for the 2014-2015 school year on the Report Card reflect the new targets.
The state uses Performance Flags, displayed in green, yellow, and red, to monitor performance and ensure schools receive detailed feedback on each subgroup’s performance on statewide assessments. The targets were calculated for the graduation rate using the following formula:
The state performance target is set using All Students with the goal of decreasing the percent of students who are not graduating by 50% by 2020-2021. The state performance target provides a statewide commitment to high graduation rates across all subgroups and for all students. Using the same methodology for setting the state performance target, individual subgroup performance targets have been set for each subgroup statewide.
The use of subgroup performance targets allows Georgia to recognize the current graduation rate for subgroups and differentiate annual growth for subgroups that need to make the most gains. While Georgia’s ultimate goal is to achieve 100% of students graduating from high school consistent with Georgia’s goal under Title I, flexibility provided through this waiver allowed Georgia to reset Performance Targets for each subgroup. The flags are awarded based upon the following legend:
