Georgia releases list of ‘focus' schools needing additional attention

Clayton County has 15 focus schools. DeKalb County has 10, as does Fulton County. Atlanta Public Schools has seven, as does Gwinnett County. Cobb County has five and Marietta's city system has two focus schools.

The focus school designation "does not mean a student is in a low-performing school," Clayton County Schools spokesman Doug Hendrix said. "Of the 15 [Clayton County] schools named, nine presently meet Adequate Yearly Progress."

Nancy Jester, a school board member in DeKalb County, said she welcomed the attention the designations bring.

“I’m happy for state involvement in failing schools,” Jester said, “because I think the state should play a role in bringing resources to bear on this problem.”

The new designations replace the "needs improvement" and "adequate yearly progress" measurements educators said were vague and unhelpful.

Focus schools will carry that designation for three years and, like priority schools, will get state assistance as they seek to improve.

That assistance, some of which will be offered as early as June, will include tutoring for students and professional development for faculty and staff.

"I don’t think the students will actually see a difference day-to-day, but I think parents, students and teachers will see some assistance over time that will positively impact student achievement," said Matt Cardoza, director of communications for the state Department of Education.

Georgia was one of 10 states that successfully applied for a waiver from NCLB performance standards. In exchange for getting that waiver, Georgia and the other states are required to categorize public schools as either focus, priority or reward schools. Reward school designations, offered to high achieving schools, are expected to be released in late fall, Cardoza said.

Georgia added a fourth category, "alert" schools, to make sure it could offer assistance to schools that, unlike those with the priority, focus or reward designation, may not receive federal Title 1 assistance given to schools with a high percentage of low-income students. The state will identify alert schools next month, Cardoza said.

District officials have praised the new designations for offering a clearer assessment of schools.

"‘Focus schools is an apt description of these schools because, while they have accomplished many good things to date, their focus continues to be on closing achievement gaps and helping all children reach their learning potential," said Sloan Roach, executive director of communication and media relations for Gwinnett County Public Schools.

"It's a concern that any of our district's schools were identified as focus schools," said Jay Dillon, director of communications for the Cobb County School District.  "These schools all have many strengths and positive aspects, but when measured by the new state evaluation criteria, they have fallen just short of the target. Now that the schools are familiar with the new expectations, they can take appropriate steps to address their shortcomings."

Staff writers Ty Tygami, D. Aileen Dodd, Nancy Badertscher and Tammy Joyner contributed to this article.

Focus schools

Metro area focus schools by district:

ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS

CLAYTON COUNTY

COBB COUNTY

DEKALB COUNTY

FULTON COUNTY

GWINNETT COUNTY

HALL COUNTY

HENRY COUNTY

MARIETTA CITY

PAULDING COUNTY

ROCKDALE COUNTY

Source: Georgia Department of Education

New designations

The Georgia Department of Education is giving public schools new designations as part of its waiver from federal No Child Left Behind accountability mandates. “Needs improvement” and “adequate yearly progress” are a thing of the past. In their place will be:

Priority school: Receives federal School Improvement Grant funding, has a graduation rate of less than 60 percent for two straight years and has students who have fared poorly on assessment tests. The school receives federal Title I assistance because it has a high percentage of low-income students. Priority schools are the lowest performing 5 percent of Title I schools in the state.

Focus school: Receives federal SIG funding, has a graduation rate of less than 60 percent for two straight years and has students who have fared poorly on assessment tests. The school receives Title I assistance. The primary difference between priority and focus schools is that focus schools have gaps in achievement and graduation rates between groups of students. While priority schools are the lowest performing 5 percent, focus schools are the 10 percent of Title I schools above them.

Reward school: School performance, as measured by assessment tests and graduation rates, is in the top 5 percent among Title I schools. A school can also be designated as a reward school if its progress on assessment tests and graduation rates is among the top 10 percent of Title I schools.

Alert school: This is a category Georgia officials came up with to make sure the state could identify non-Title I schools that need assistance. Alert schools are identified based on lower than average graduation rates, lower performance by groups of students and lower performance in particular subjects like reading and math.