The school climate rating system
Georgia Education Department officials worked with a committee of school superintendents and Georgia State University to create the rating system. The ratings include a school’s student disciplinary data, the percentage of students who miss 10 or more days of school a year and student surveys on drug use, bullying and the prevalence of violence in their school.
Here’s what the rankings mean:
5-star — excellent
4-star — above average
3-star — average
2-star — below satisfactory
1-star — unsatisfactory
Come to www.ajc.com and www.myajc.com on Monday to see how your school fared.
Georgia parents will soon be able to see how safe their child’s school is compared to others, how bad absenteeism is and how many kids get kicked out, among other information.
The state Education Department is scheduled to release today its first school climate ratings, based on safety and other factors that hinder a student’s ability to learn.
The rating system — 5 stars for excellent; one star for unsatisfactory — is intended to help the state and school districts determine what low-scoring schools need to do to create a better classroom environment. The rating system includes a school’s student disciplinary data, the percentage of students who miss 10 or more days of school a year and student surveys on drug use, bullying and their thoughts about how dangerous their school is.
The big question is, will it work?
Schools with low ratings aren’t put in detention by the state.
Georgia education officials will instead urge schools with low star ratings to take steps to reduce misbehavior. Those could range from encouraging students to treat classmates with respect to offering gifts to students who follow the rules.
Marlyn Tillman, a Gwinnett County parent who has criticized student disciplinary efforts by that district and the state, says a good-behavior program won’t work if it “is only a reward program without any of the holistic aspects.” She believes the rating system can be useful because it will give parents a better picture of school safety.
Gov. Nathan Deal signed a senate bill in 2012 requiring annual school climate ratings. Lawmakers initially proposed assigning letter grades to each school, but eventually chose the star system.
State data The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reviewed shows expulsions declined by about 45 percent over the past decade. Out-of-school suspensions declined by nearly 13 percent during the last three school years, the data shows.
Despite the decline, many educators, some state lawmakers and education activists are concerned about disruptive and dangerous classroom environments in some schools.
Education department officials say they’ll offer technical assistance to schools in areas where they need improvement.
“School climate ratings will give us a new perspective on better understanding the student discipline data,” said deputy state superintendent Garry McGiboney.
Teddy Reese said he’s excited about the rating system. Reese, director of community operations for Georgia Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, a nonprofit that has worked with the state on student discipline, said the state will also need to sufficiently fund school-climate efforts to make students feel safer.
“We don’t want it to be one of those unfunded mandates,” he said.
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