Fayette County’s Rising Starr Middle School has earned recertification as a Georgia National Lighthouse School to Watch. The designation is part of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform. Rising Starr is one of 19 such schools in Georgia and the only one in Fayette. This year marks the school’s sixth certification over 18 years.
Qualifying for the certification requires the school to perform highly in four areas: academic excellence, developmental responsiveness for students in early adolescence, socially equitable opportunities for students and teachers, and organizational structures and processes “to sustain trajectory toward excellence.”
Joined by five of her staff members, Principal Kathy Smith acknowledged the honor at the Dec. 13 Board of Education meeting by sharing a comment made by the certification committee. “The creativity exhibited in all endeavors is commendable,” she was told, “and students at Rising Starr are receiving an education that stretches far beyond the walls of the school.”
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