THOMASVILLE — Thomasville High School’s CCRPI numbers increased but Principal Dr. Shannon Norfleet doesn’t use that metric alone to gauge school success.

The recent College and Career Ready Performance Index scores put THS fourth in the region. The numbers also were the second best for the school since the CCRPI’s inception.

“As far as a point of pride, it’s an acknowledgement that you’re doing something right,” Norfleet said, “but you can never say ‘we’ve arrived and done a good job’ and be done.”

Thomasville High’s CCRPI score of 78 for 2019 was just .3 of a point behind Baconton Charter. Lee County High School, at 86.2, was first in the Southwest Georgia Regional Education Services Agency service area. 

THS’s mark was an 8.3 point jump from 2018.

“This 8.3 point jump is the highest I’ve had personally as a principal,” Norfleet said. “But you have to recognize that when you start from a lower score, it’s easier to get big jumps. The higher the score, the harder it is to get those increases. The higher you get, the harder it is to make overall progress on your score.”

As encouraging as the CCRPI score is, it’s not the only metric Norfleet uses in measuring what his faculty and staff are doing. Far from it, according to him.

“I really don’t put emphasis on CCRPI scores,” he said. “We’re going to celebrate that it went up. But that is not the emphasis. We don’t emphasize test scores, and we don’t emphasize school scores. We emphasize improvement in school culture and climate. 

“It is my belief that if you can improve the culture and climate of your school, your test scores and CCRPI will increase,” Norfleet added. “And I think we can show that over the years with data.”

The CCRPI score is made up of a wide range of factors, ranging from content mastery to readiness to school climate to graduation rates. Included in the mix are how subgroups — made up of different racial and ethnic groups, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities, to name a few — perform. 

THS’ scores went up seven points to 60.3 in content mastery. Norfleet acknowledged the sharp increase but also pointed out he was not satisfied with the total. 

The school had two areas of significant improvement, in closing gaps and in progress. THS got the maximum score in closing gaps. With a larger of 46.6 for African American students, THS hit a mark of 50.8. Hitting the target also means getting points in CCRPI for closing the gap there. The targets are set by taking the previous score and adding about 3 percent.

“We’re trying to bring those gaps closer together,” Norfleet said. 

But, as Norfleet pointed out, the target was low to start with. Still, the school showed gains in English across all groups and subgroups and one group that consistently scored better was economically disadvantaged. 

While the school had a slight decrease in its overall graduation rate, at 74.2 percent for a target of 76.4, it was up by 10 points for economically disadvantaged students and African American students, Norfleet pointed out.  

The most recent CCRPI scores met with raised eyebrows, including those of Gov. Brian Kemp and state Superintendent Richard Woods. Calls have been issued for tweaking the CCRPI formula after some schools that had received A grades had fallen to C with no decrease in test scores.

“You can have virtually no change in your test scores and have a drop in your rating,” Norfleet said. 

The two things people notice most about a high school, Norfleet pointed out, are the graduation rate and the CCRPI score. 

“People relate it to a school grade,” he said. 

Though it’s not quite as a simple in establishing as a letter grade in a school subject, when schools go from A to C without much drop in scores, it makes people doubt the rating system, Norfleet said.

“Since so many parents and community members place an emphasis on grad rate and CCRPI scores, we need to have trust in those scores,” he said. “Just like a student is more than its grade in a math class, the school is more than its grade on CCRPI.”

In going beyond the CCRPI results, Norfleet said he and his team fix discipline and processes and procedures in the school. 

“I just want this school to be somewhere where people want to send their kids,” he said. “The way you convince people of that is by making sure your classroom environments are conducive to learning. It’s just that simple. I run this school as if everyone of these kids is my child.  We set our processes and procedures as if each one were my child.”

Editor Pat Donahue can be reached at (229) 226-2400 ext. 1806.