Archive for the ‘Clayton schools’ Category

The state Department of Education released its list of Alert Schools today.

The new DOE accountability designations — priority schools, focus schools and reward schools — replace the “needs improvement” label in No Child Left Behind that educators deemed unclear and unhelpful. These three designations target  “Title I” schools that have a high percentage of low-income students. DOE also designated a fourth category, “alert schools,” so the state can focus on struggling schools that do not necessarily have a high percentage of low-income students.

DOE defines Alert Schools are those that need to raise student achievement on statewide assessments in the areas of graduation rate for high schools and subgroup performance and subject performance for elementary and middle schools. Alert Schools can be Title I Schools or Non-Title I Schools.

The criteria used to identify Alert Schools are:

(1) Graduation Alert Schools: High Schools whose subgroup graduation rate falls at …

Continue reading State DOE releases list of Alert Schools today »

Many countries, including Finland, do not offer sports at schools. Sports are community-based rather than school based.

I wonder if that could eventually become the U.S. model as schools struggle to decide which programs to jettison to cope with diminished budgets. I don’t see high school sports disappearing, but I am hearing about middle schools cutting back on their sports offerings or shifting more costs to parents.

Here is a recent AJC story on the dilemma:

Clayton County Public schools is negotiating with the county’s parks and recreation system to assume operation of its middle school sports teams in hopes that the district won’t have to terminate its sports programs to balance next year’s school budget.

As it stands now, Clayton’s school system needs to cut $16 million from next year’s budget. Scrapping the middle school sports program would save the district nearly $900,000 a year, superintendent Edmond Heatley told the school board recently. The issue is likely to be …

Continue reading With budgets shrinking, should middle schools cast off sports? »

Teacher absenteeism can adversely affect students. (AP Images)

The AJC has an interesting piece this morning on absenteeism among metro Atlanta teachers. The story by education writer Ty Tagami and database specialist Kelly Guckian is subscriber only and will not appear online so I can’t share a link. But I can provide a summary.

The AJC analyzed metro Atlanta attendance data for the past three years and found that teachers in nearly all districts missed on average more than 10 days due to illness, training, personal leave or jury duty. Sickness was the most common cause.

The story examines whether “mental health” days are increasing because of class size, diminishing respect and increasing responsibilities and accountability.

“It used to be that teachers only worried about teaching,” said Connie Jackson, president of the Cobb County Association of Educators. “Now, they have to worry about paperwork, evaluations, test scores, data management, keeping your students happy …

Continue reading Teacher absenteeism: Are mental health days on the rise? »

Under its new accountability system, Georgia has created a tier of schools known as focus schools. Today, DOE released the list of 156 focus schools.

Focus schools  — which include schools doing well by a lot of students, but not by all students — will be served by DOE for three years with supports beginning in June.

(Since I posted this yesterday, the AJC has put up a news story that lists the local schools. See it here.)

The new DOE accountability designations — priority schools, focus schools and reward schools — replace the “needs improvement” label that educators deemed unclear and unhelpful. These three designations target  “Title I” schools that have a high percentage of low-income students.

Earlier this month, DOE released the names of the 78 schools on the priority list, a label that brings the greatest level of intervention to address chronic under performance.

The reward designation goes to high-achieving schools. DOE will also designate a fourth category, “alert …

Continue reading DOE releases list of 156 schools on its new “focus” list »

Dr. Edmond T. Heatley (Clayton schools)

I am not a fan of reality TV shows, but the Clayton County school system could command a following with its unique dramas, the latest of which is spending $40,000 on what AJC reporter Tammy Joyner described as “a futile effort to pinpoint the source of a rumor involving its superintendent’s conduct.”

In her investigative piece, Joyner notes that the school board approved the rumor probe without public discussion or a public vote when the district was dealing with budget cuts that have resulted in layoffs, delays in book purchases and a shorter school calendar.

While the four-month investigation failed to find out where the rumor started or any wrongdoing by Edmond Heatley, it did uncover 400 sexually explicit pictures on school board member Trinia Garrett’s district-issued laptop. The board wound up dismissing the case against Garrett during a hearing Jan. 23, but not before possibly costing the district several thousand dollars …

Continue reading Clayton spends $40,000 to trace school chief rumors to no avail. Couldn’t a simple denial suffice? »

As an AJC editorial writer for 12 years, I spent a lot of time writing about the problems of Clayton schools and its dysfunctional school board. So, it saddens me to read accounts of continued problems with the adults running the system, which has many dedicated teachers and committed students.  (I saw them at the many public hearings and rallies that were held during the loss-of-accreditation days.)

Clayton also has some of the weirdest stuff — stuff that takes away from the core mission of education and makes me wonder about the caliber of its school board. And this is an example.

Board member Trinia Garrett was accused of  downloading 400 pornographic pictures to her district-issued laptop. There was a hearing Monday on whether Garrett’s actions constituted an ethics violation, but the 5-2 vote was not sufficient to sustain a violation.

Garrett contends that she did not download the porn and that the computer was out of her hands at times being fixed, but an audit could …

Continue reading Porn on school board member’s computer. Why is it always Clayton? »

Milken Educator Shekema Silveri believes her classroom has to be healing place for her students. (AJC photo)

When Clayton County teacher Shekema Silveri won the Milken award last month, the most prestigious prize in education, another teacher commented to me, “That’s her ticket to a better job anywhere she wants.”

Silveri won’t be cashing in that ticket, saying she is where she was called to be — with students who thrive on her love and support.

“I want students who actually appreciate a teacher who loves them,” she says. “I would not be in my element in a school where students said, ‘I don’t need a teacher to love me because I have two parents and a nanny.’”

Silveri’s deep affection for her students at Mount Zion High School in Jonesboro takes many forms, from cautioning them at the start of the weekend, “Come back to me safely. I love you,” to daily texts to a teen whose mother died three years ago, “Good morning princess, God loves you, and so do I,” to shopping for …

Continue reading Georgia’s only Milken winner this year: “I am my students.” »

Thanks to the Milken folks and DOE for sending me this video of Clayton County teacher Shekema Silveri learning this morning that she won the prestigious Milken Educator Award. Please watch the entire video as it is very reaffirming and uplifting. I love the chant, “We, MZ, love Silveri.” (Share it with your kids; mine are sitting here with me watching it for the third time. And now they are saying the chant, too.)

Continue reading Here is promised video of Mount Zion High teacher winning her teaching “Oscar” today in Clayton County »

Milken Award winner Shekema Silveri (Clayton schools)

Called the Oscar of teaching, a Milken award went this morning to stunned Mount Zion High School teacher Shekema Silveri. Silveri teaches English/Language arts. She is the only Georgia teacher this year to win the prestigious teaching award and its $25,000 prize.

(If I can get video of the surprise announcement at the high school this morning, I will post.)

Here is her bio information from the Milken Family Foundation:

Shekema Silveri is a natural leader at Mt. Zion High School in Jonesboro.. Bringing to the table an extensive community service background and first-rate academic credentials, Silveri employs multi-layered instruction and well-defined practices, all in a school with a large at-risk student population.

In the classroom, Silveri requires students to produce evidence of learning, justify their perspectives, evaluate their reasoning and set their future goals.

As part of her well-rounded approach to …

Continue reading Clayton teacher wins prestigious Milken Award. Congrats to Shekema Silveri. »

The state released state CRCT scores by system today, with strong metro performances by students in Cherokee, Fayette, Decatur and Buford.

Clayton and Atlanta had some of the lowest scores.

The longer I report on education, the less comfortable I am with test score results, which often speak more to the affluence of the families in a district than the proficiency of either the schools or the teachers.

I think a fairer comparison is to juxtapose scores in systems with similar socio-economics. If you are interested, here is the AJC database that will allow you to look at district performance.

A DeKalb parent has already looked at that system’s scores and noted that, “If you go look at the score report, you will find that in 8th grade, DCSS had lower pass rates than either Clayton or Atlanta in 8th grade reading and math.  In fact, Clayton’s pass rate for reading (8th grade) was actually 2 percentage points higher than DeKalb.”

According to the AJC:

For example, among eighth …

Continue reading CRCT scores are in: What do they tell us this time? »