The Griffin Spalding School system Improvement in science scores highlights graduation test results 

Spalding County students continued their improvement in the science portion of the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT), and the percentage of students passing all portions of the test rose a point over last year.  

The GHSGT tests proficiencies in English/language arts, math, science and social studies. 

“All of our areas are below RESA and state scores. Our goal is to meet those standards,” said Laura Youmans, the school system’s curriculum director for grades 9-12. “We were disappointed that our overall scores did not go up. However, we were pleased with the science results, especially with Griffin High’s scores. We’re going to keep working to improve.” 

Overall, 76 percent of 580 Griffin-Spalding students passed all portions of the GHSGT, up from 75 percent in 2008. Statewide, 80.11 percent of test takers passed all portions of the test in 2009. Spalding High School was the top performing school in the Griffin-Spalding County School System, with 79.62 percent of its test takers passing all portions of the GHSGT. Griffin High was at 77.93 percent, and A.Z. Kelsey Academy at 10 percent. 

“A few years ago we started requiring that all students take algebra and geometry, and that has helped on the science portion of the graduation test,” Youmans said. “In English and social studies and science, this was the first time our curriculum had been aligned with the Georgia Performance Standards.” 

In the science portion of the test, 85 percent of the students in Griffin-Spalding achieved basic proficiency or better, up from 82 percent a year ago and up 21 percent from 2007.  

Griffin-Spalding’s pass percentage in English and language arts was 86 percent (down from 90 percent in 2008), compared with 89.99 statewide.