THOMASVILLE- The Thomasville City Schools Board of Education met on Tuesday evening, where they heard an update from Dr. Sharonda Wilson, K-5 Director of Curriculum and Instruction, on Harper Elementary’s status as a federally- identified CSI (Comprehensive Support and Improvement) School.

Harper Elementary was identified as a CSI School in October 2019. CSI Schools make up the lowest-performing 5% of schools in the state.

To be removed from the list of CSI Schools, Harper must no longer perform with the lowest 5% of schools and must demonstrate improvement and content mastery in ELA (English/Language Arts), math achievement and science achievement.

Wilson explained to the Board that Harper has shown no significant improvements from 2019-2022, however this year she, along with Principal Pamela Cloud, has worked diligently with faculty, staff and members of the Georgia Department of Education to help strategize on plans of improvement.

One of the ways Wilson and Cloud track progress is through the MAP.

The MAP is an innovative assessment that measures achievement and growth in K-12 math, reading, language usage and science.

In 2022, the MAP showed that 25.38% of students had mastered English Language Arts. However, the school saw a massive growth in FY23, when students retook the MAP. This fiscal year the MAP showed 32.72% of students had mastered ELA.

While the MAP is a great indicator, the GaDOE does not recognize the test as their official assessment. They alternatively use the Georgia Milestones Assessment System (GMAS).

Although the MAP showed a growth in the students’ ELA content mastery, GMAS showed in FY22, 23.47% of students mastered ELA, while in FY23 only 22.3% showed a mastery of the content.

Wilson addressed the difference in the two assessments, noting the variation.

“The schools give MAP at the end of March right before the students take GMAS so the teachers can go back and reteach and assess where they are and what they need to focus on,” Wilson said. “It is also a very good indicator of how students will perform on the GMAS.”

ELA content mastery was not the only subject that saw a variation in the two assessments.

Math content mastery increased on the MAP but decreased by over two points on the GMAS.

After presenting the Board with the data, Board Member Corey Sumner questioned how accurate the MAP was, given the near six-point variation in math content mastery.

“Is it normally that off,” Sumner asked. “Is MAP that wrong?”

Wilson shared her hypothesis on the cause for the varying data.

“When the students take the MAP assessment, the teachers give it like a benchmark, so it isn’t given to them in a way that’s like you have to pass in order to pass this grade,” she explained.

However, the GMAS is made to be a “big deal” to students. Wilson hypothesized that students often see the stress the teacher is under during the GMAS and take on that anxiety in their performance.

Additionally, Wilson pointed out that the GMAS has a constructive response portion, where students are required to type their responses.

“With MAP, they are not typing on any part of the test,” she said.

To help with this portion of the test, Cloud now offers typing and keyboarding classes to all students.

In addition to helping the students, teachers are also being offered district and state support to help get the kids on grade point level and increase their content mastery in FY24 by 5 points.

The state expects that all children should move up at least 3 points, but due to Harper’s status as a CSI School, five points is their new goal.

This goal can be achieved through Tier 1 instruction.

Wilson said she, along with Dr. Fred Rayfield, Interim Superintendent, and other staff members is currently conducting Standards Based Instruction walk-throughs. They hope that 80% of teachers will demonstrate proficiency in this standards-based observation.

Because of Harper’s status, teachers also have access to state instructors, who are on campus 2-3 days a week, helping teachers learn how to best instruct students on particular concepts and subjects. Teachers can then see a model of the standards-based instruction from the state.

Teachers are monitored by the state on their collaborative planning and how the standards are being implemented throughout the curriculum.

Wilson shared this is not a punishment, but Harper has many novice teachers who may not understand what to teach and how to teach it.

Teachers have also received one-on-one on how to increase literacy in grades 3-5, which are currently below grade level.

“We want teachers to have a literacy-rich environment, where students can see and interact with adults reading and understand the pace and cadence it takes for them to be a fluent reader,” Wilson said.

For teachers who have difficulty finding ways to incorporate paired reading into subjects beyond that of ELA, Wilson said they offer multiple continuing education learning opportunities and give feedback.

With the resources given to both students and staff, Wilson was proud to report a snippet from the data workbook provided by the state.

In the fall of 2022, students took a benchmark assessment and received a 21.32% in ELA content mastery. However, those same students took the benchmark assessment in 2023, receiving a 33.89% in ELA content mastery.

While it is not as quick of growth as Wilson would like, she said this does give her hope Harper is headed in the right direction to be removed from the list of CSI Schools.