Clayton County Public Schools saw its schools that had been targeted for possible state takeover removed from that risk.
Clayton got off the list of schools eligible for Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposed Opportunity School District thanks to districtwide curriculum changes and focus on individual student needs, officials said. It was the only district to see all its schools removed.
The move was based on the College and Career Ready Performance Index, a scorecard on school quality, the state Department of Education released in early May. Schools subject to state takeover, if voters approve Deal’s OSD plan in November, are those that scored below 60, on a 0-100 scale, in the previous three years of testing.
The original OSD list of 139 schools in early 2015 included Charles Drew, Forest Park and Riverdale high schools. The list announced in early May had 129 schools, but some districts saw schools added to it.
“A variety of programs and instructional plans were implemented in our school system as part of the improvement plan,” Superintendent Luvenia Jackson said, adding that the announcement “is great news for our school district.”
The district started working on what it calls the CCPS Academic Achievement Plan several years ago. It included coaching for principals and teachers, conducting monthly district and school data meetings, more frequent parent conferences and weekly district monitoring of instruction.
At Charles Drew High School, at 6237 Garden Walk Blvd. in Riverdale, Principal Gary Townsend said the district’s plan was working wonders. Aside from that, teachers stay after school for tutoring and come on Saturdays to provide additional instruction for students as well.
“The biggest difference was the assistance coming from the district with content-specific coaches assisting teachers with the lesson models, and the monitoring we did as an administrative team here,” said Townsend, who has been the school’s principal since it opened in 2009. “You go in and you want to make sure good teaching is happening. We looked at the classrooms and the framework we were using and made sure … it was working.”
He said attention to student testing data was important in the turnaround. The data showed math was a problem for many of the students coming into the school. In addition to freshman algebra, the students also take an algebra support class, which has resulted in major improvement in the school’s math scores. If a student is struggling, that student may be moved to a different class to see if he or she has a better outcome.
“Knowing your data guarantees you know where you need to go,” Townsend said. “We use every option we have to make sure the children get exactly what they need. You have to get where (the students) are and move them up. It’s great to know it is working.”
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