A worsening sense of safety and other elements that inform school culture, such as disciplinary incidents, led to a drop in rankings for several Fulton County Schools on Georgia’s latest “School Climate Star” ratings.
A third of the district’s 103 schools were rated below satisfactory or unsatisfactory during the 2014-15 school year, as an additional five fell to that level from the prior year, for a total of 34. Conversely, seven fewer schools scored above average or excellent. Two schools, Northwestern Middle and Alpharetta Elementary, tumbled in the rankings. Both were at the top in 2013-14, scoring a five, but under the new index Northwestern rates a three and Alpharetta dropped to a two.
In 2013-14, Fulton had no schools at the bottom, but in these new rankings, the district has eight with a score of one.
The ratings released Wednesday by the Georgia Department of Education are derived from a variety of sources, including surveys of parents and school staff and discipline and attendance data.
A five is the top score, and 259 schools statewide ranked there versus 334 the prior year. Twenty more schools fell to the bottom of the list, for a total of 87.
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