Schools
Cobb Students Improve Writing Scores
Every traditional high school had 90 percent or more of students passing the 2012 Georgia High School Writing Test.
Cobb County School District 11th grade students taking the Georgia High School Writing Test for the first time slightly improved 2011 average scores.
On Tuesday, the district released results from September's test. All 16 traditional high schools had passing rates of at least 90 percent on the test, which measures students' writing skills across the curriculum.
Cobb's average scale score of 231 is one point higher than last year. Since 2009, the scale score has increased from 224 to 231 and the percentage passing from 94 percent to 98 percent.
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The Cobb average is higher than the metro Atlanta average of 229 and 226 for the state of Georgia.
“The state writing test is an important gauge of our students’ communications skills and lets our teachers know which students may need additional support prior to graduation,” said Cobb School Superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa.
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“I’m proud to see that our District-wide efforts to incorporate writing in all academic areas, including math and science, are resulting in improved performance and a higher passing rate."
The biggest single-school gains of students meeting or exceeding standards took place at Kennesaw Mountain High School and South Cobb High School. Both reported jumps of four percent from 2011.
Campbell, Pebblebrook and Sprayberry each posted scale score increases of five or more points.
Cobb's special education average scale was 216, with 89 percent of 493 first-time test-takers passing. In 2011, the scale was 213 and the pass rate was 84 percent.
A total of 6,678 high school juniors were first-time takers of the 100-minute test, during which they wrote a two-page "persuasive paper on an assigned topic."
The scores are based on Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) domains of ideas, organization, style, and convention.
The test is given three times a year.
What follows is a summary of the school-by-school results. More complete numbers, and a more detailed explanation of the test, is available on the attached PDF.
# Tested
Scale Score% Meet
or Exceed
Standards
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