Slight Boost for Cobb 8th Grade Writing Scores

Eighty-seven percent of students in the Cobb County School District met or surpassed standards in the winter 2013 state Eighth Grade Writing Test, according to a figures released by the district Monday.

Cobb has the highest percentage of students of any school district in the metro Atlanta area reaching or surpassing the state benchmark, and it is one point above 2012 Cobb results.

The metro figure is 86 percent, while across the state 82 percent of students reached or went beyond the standards.

The Eighth Grade Writing Assessment is one of four level-specific writing tests administered by the Georgia Department of Education. Student essays are scored on a scale of 1 to 5, measuring effective writing according to ideas, organization, style, and convention.

A total of 7,962 Cobb eighth graders took the most recent test and 898 special education students also took the test, with 58 percent meeting or exceeding standards.

Nine Cobb middle schools had 90 percent or more of students achieving state standards for the test:

• Barber and Durham in Acworth;
• Daniell, Mabry, McCleskey and Simpson, in Northeast Cobb;
• Dickerson, Dodgen and Hightower Trail, in East Cobb.

The biggest boosts in the number of students meeting or exceeding the standards came from the following midde schools:

• Barber, up 6 percent;
• Pine Mountain, Simpson and Tapp, up 4 percent;
• Durham and Lost Mountain, up 3 percent.

The following chart details meeting and exceeding scores for each middle school in the Cobb district and compares them to 2012 results.

Students

Tested

% M & E

Standards

2012

Score

For more details, please see the attached PDF.