During last week’s Troup County Board of Education meetings, the school system discussed an updated continuous improvement plan. The board unanimously approved the plan on Thursday.

The Troup County School Continuous System Improvement Plan focuses on three priorities — a culture focused on success, relevant and rigorous instruction and literacy, which encompasses reading, writing, vocabulary, speaking and critical thinking.

“There are a couple of things we have taken a different approach to this year and one of those is trying to identify big, over-arching priorities that everyone in the system and everyone in the community can know about and work toward improvement,” said Superintendent Cole Pugh, during last Tuesday’s work session.

The recent release of the statewide Career and College Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) scores showed improvement for the system in climate and culture. Fourteen of the 17 schools in the Troup County School System received a three-star climate rating or higher in the CCRPI scores.

“I think this is a reflection that our culture is changing on our campuses,” Pugh said.

There has also been a major decrease in referrals at the high school (56 percent), middle school (42 percent) and elementary school levels (56 percent) when compared to last year at this time.    The other two priorities, rigor and relevance and literacy, are areas where the system believes it needs to improve overall. A 2015 study by the International Center for Leadership in Education showed that students were compliant but not engaged and that instruction was not as rigorous as desired. Literacy also remains a focus of the school system. According to the Spring Georgia Milestones Assessment System, which measures English Language Arts, mathematics, science and social studies, 69 percent of Troup County School System third graders are reading on the third-grade level. The improvement plan also includes priorities and targets.

A higher CCRPI score, which students use to judge student’s readiness for college or careers, is a part of those goals, with a target of raising the 71.6 score to 76 in 2018. Other goals include raising the school system’s attendance rate, the graduation rate and the teacher retention rate, as well as improving the rigorous and relevant instruction and literacy levels.

“A system improvement plan is a five-year plan. It’s very fluid,” said Assistant Superintendent Karen Cagle. “If your circumstances change, and you need to add something or delete something, you add something or delete something.”

Board member Joe Franklin said it was clear a lot of work went into the plan.

“It’s a live document that we can share with anybody. If you want to know what we’re doing, this is it,” Franklin said.

The entire improvement plan can be viewed online at www.troup.org.