Marietta Outpaces State, Metro Atlanta Writing Assessment Scores

Marietta City Schools (MCS) fifth-graders meeting or exceeding standards outpaced state and Metro Atlanta percentages on the 2013 Georgia Grade 5 Writing Assessment.

Of the 683 students tested, 87 percent met or exceeded the standard. Marietta City students outscored their state peers (79 percent) by an eight-point margin, and their Metro peers (83 percent) by four percentage points.

“Our teachers continue to prepare our students for success in the critical area of writing as demonstrated by growth over last year’s performance and the percent of students meeting and exceeding standards, in our fifth as well as our recent eighth grade assessments,” said Emily Lembeck, MCS Superintendent. “Our students in a number of demographic subgroups also continue to outpace their peers statewide and in the Metro area.”            

MCS fifth-graders in nine demographic subgroups (All Students, Regular Program, Female, Male, Asian, Black, Hispanic, White, and Multi-ethnic student populations) met or exceeded state levels on the 2013 Georgia Grade 5 Writing Assessment.

Of the nine subgroups, All Students (+7), Regular Program (+7), Female (+5), Male (+7), Asian (+6), Black (+5), Hispanic (+3), White (+9), and Multi-ethnic (+11) outpaced the state by meeting or exceeding standards.

Test scores on the 2013 Georgia Grade 5 Writing Assessment range from 100 to a maximum of 350. A score ranging from 100 to 199 “does not meet” standards, 200 to 249 “meets” and 250 to 350 “exceeds.” Marietta City students scored an average of 221, six points above the state average (215) and 2 points above the metro average (219).

The Georgia Grade 5 Writing Assessment is a test of narrative, informational or persuasive writing. The scoring system is analytic. Analytic scoring means that more than one feature or domain of a paper is evaluated. Each domain itself is scored holistically. The four domains of effective writing are Ideas, Organization, Style and Conventions.

Marietta students scored above the state on all four domains tested Ideas (3.2), Organization (3.2), Style (3.2), and Conventions (3.0); MCS students surpassed their Metro peers on three of the four domains: Ideas (3.2), Organization (3.2), and Conventions (3.0), and were on par on Style (3.2).