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Ninety-four percent of Cobb County 11th graders met or exceeded standards on the 2009 Georgia High School Writing Test. Cobb students’ average scale score of 224 remains higher than average scale scores for metropolitan Atlanta and Georgia. The scale used to measure achievement ranges from 100 to 350, with a score of 200 as “meets expectations,” and 250 as “exceeds expectations.” Administered in September to 7,496 students, the writing test requires students to write a persuasive paper on an assigned topic in a limited time window. The assessment is the part of the Georgia High School Graduation Test, a requirement for all students pursuing a high school diploma.

Cobb’s population of Students with Disabilities (SWD) and English Language Learners (ELL) also performed well on the writing test. The percentage of Cobb’s Students with Disabilities meeting or exceeding expectations was 75 percent, compared to just 62 percent of their peers statewide (see Table III). Sixty-nine percent of ELL students tested in the district met or exceeded expectations, compared to sixty-six percent across the state.

Individual schools across the district fared well on the writing test. At 13 of the district’s 17 high schools, 90 percent or more of the students met or exceeded expectations. Seven schools – Allatoona, Harrison, Hillgrove, Kell, Lassiter, Pope and Walton - led all others with 95 percent or more of students scoring at or above expectations, with Lassiter and Pope students topping the district at 98 percent meeting or exceeding expectations.

The Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) domains, or broad themes, covered by the writing test include Ideas, Organization, Style, and Convention. The Ideas domain measures the degree to which the writer establishes a controlling idea and elaborates the main points with examples, illustrations, facts or details. In the Organization domain, students are assessed on their ability to arrange ideas in a clear order consistent with the persuasive genre. Style points are awarded based on the writer’s ability to control language and engage the reader. The Conventions domain measures the degree to which the writer demonstrates control of sentence formation, usage, and mechanics. Test scores are ranked on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest. In each domain, Cobb 11th graders scored higher than their peers across the state. Three of the high schools across the district had domain scores that were consistently higher than averages for both the district, metro area and state.

Superintendent Fred Sanderson said, “Writing is an essential skill for high school and beyond. We are pleased that these scores reflect the competitive ability of our students, especially for our special populations.”

In March 2010, Cobb 11th graders will be assessed on the language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science portions of the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT).

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Call or Email me today for all of your Real Estate needs! Jodi Smith, East Cobb Realtor with Keller Williams Realty Consultants.  Helping you find Homes in East Cobb, Homes in Marietta, Homes in Roswell and Homes in Alpharetta.  CELL:  678-763-6025 or EMAIL: jodismith@kw.com

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