Georgia’s new report card for schools is out this morning and the grade for most metro Atlanta school systems is above average, with the City of Decatur and Gwinnett County leading the bunch.
A handful of Atlanta area systems, though, scored below the state average. Atlanta Public Schools and the systems in Clayton and DeKalb counties came in below the mark.
“It reveals that we must have a sense of urgency to ensure all our kids receive a quality education,” APS spokesman Stephen Alford said.
The scores in the College and Career Ready Performance Index are broken out by grade levels. The tiny Decatur district, with fewer than 4,000 students, ranked first in metro Atlanta at the elementary level — and 11th in the state — with 93.7 points out of a possible 110. Gwinnett County, Georgia’s largest district with about 165,000 students, topped the metro middle school rankings with 94.3 points, coming in eighth place in the state. And Decatur, with just one high school, topped the metro district scores for that age group with 88.9 points, enough for seventh place statewide.
The Atlanta city system lagged other core metro districts in all age groupings, with 68.4, 67.9 and 60.3 points at the elementary, middle and high school levels respectively. The city system was near the bottom of the statewide list for older students, coming 13th from last place in Georgia for middle schools and 15th from the bottom for high schools.
Yet the city gets some accolades under the new measure, which focuses mainly on student achievement but also gives points for student growth, closing achievement gaps and performance among smaller groupings of both disadvantaged students and high achievers.
Early College High School at Carver in south Atlanta ranked seventh in the state with 96.3 points, behind the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology, which ranked second in Georgia with 99.8 points, behind top-ranked Johnson Magnet School in Richmond County.
A focus on individual schools also brought good news for DeKalb, where the aptly-named Wadsworth Magnet School for High Achievers achieved a first place ranking among Georgia middle schools, with 101.4 points. The Elite Scholars Academy School in Clayton was ranked fourth with exactly 100 points, followed by Cobb’s Hightower Trail Middle with 99.5 points.
One area where metro Atlanta dominated: individual elementary schools filled out the top of the statewide list. The Marietta Center for Advanced Academics was in first place with 102.7 points, followed by Head Elementary in Gwinnett (102.2 points), the Wadsworth Magnet School for High Achievers in DeKalb (101.9), Oakhurst Elementary in Decatur (101.7) and Gwinnett’s Harris Elementary (101.6).
Schools in Decatur and Forsyth, Gwinnett and Fulton counties occupied the rest of the top 10 elementary list. The scores are based on performance during the 2011-12 school year, with current year results to be posted in the fall.
Many of the top-ranked schools have selective admissions. Lambert High in Forsyth County is not among them. The public school, which takes all comers, ranked 11th in the state. Forsyth Superintendent L.C. “Buster” Evans said that in his view it came in third place. On his personal list, he “scrubbed” magnet schools and other schools that can pick and choose students. He said it’s hard to make comparisons between regular public schools and those that “may be serving only a slice of the community.”
Of course, demographics affect performance, as well. Forsyth is relatively affluent with only about a fifth of students qualifying for free or reduced-price school meals. Decatur had about the same poverty level. Meanwhile, about three quarters of Atlanta and DeKalb students meet that poverty measure and more than half in Gwinnett do.
The new measure may be imperfect, but Evans thinks it is an improved over the old method, which mainly considered performance on statewide tests. Test results are still a major category, counting for 70 points. But systems also get more nuanced measures now. Evans said his system got points for keeping art and music in schools during the Great Recession. “It gives us a better opportunity to see how we’re serving the whole child,” he said.
See more rankings at ajc.com and check back for updates. Find your school and district in the data at myajc.com. View the state portal at ccrpi.gadoe.org.
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