Nine of Atlanta’s public schools improved enough to move off of Georgia’s lowest-performing list.
The schools are among 61 in the state no longer considered "priority" or "focus" schools, the Georgia Department of Education announced Tuesday. They got on the list with low student scores on state standardized tests and, in some cases, low graduation rates.
The nine improved Atlanta Public Schools, and their previous place on the list, are:
Centennial Academy -- Focus
Continental Colony Elementary School -- Focus
Dunbar Elementary School -- Priority
Humphries Elementary School -- Focus
Miles Intermediate School -- Focus
Slater Elementary School -- Focus
Therrell High School -- Priority
Towns Elementary School -- Focus
Tuskegee Airman Global Academy -- Priority
Priority Schools are those among the bottom 5 percent in achievement on standardized state tests that also have high concentrations of students in poverty and a consistently low graduation rate. Focus Schools are the lowest-performing 10 percent based on “achievement gap” data, which measure the testing gains made by each school’s students in the bottom quartile of performance.