DeKalb school officials have come up with a plan to improve failing schools by year’s end and get them off a list that could send them into state takeover.
Twenty-four schools in DeKalb County are subject to being taken over by the state under Gov. Nathan Deal’s Opportunity Schools District program. If approved by voters, the program would take over failing schools across the state and put them into a state-run district that would have wide-ranging powers to change them or even close them.
DeKalb’s improvement plan goes further, identifying an additional 30 schools deemed “at risk” or identified as needing more support based on a three-year average of their College & Career-Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) scores.
“It’s a good goal to have,” new Superintendent Steve Green said about getting all the schools removed from remediation lists. “I think that’s the expectation … that the way it’s presented in the school community and media as a list you don’t want to be on.”
Morcease Beasley, the district’s executive director for curriculum instruction, professional learning and federal programs, said a team has been working to identify areas of need in all schools. Among the components in the plan:
• An audit of the district’s curriculum
• Opportunities for professional learning
• Family and community engagement
The bottom line, Green said, is that productive changes to classroom instruction will have a trickle-down effect and improvements will result in different directions.
“As the picture comes into clarity, we’re dialed in and focused in laser-like fashion,” he said. “When we do that well — high quality education experience for children — all the other things are going to fall into place.
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