Thursday, August 07, 2008

DeKalb County Schools Miss Mark in 2008 AYP

Students in DeKalb County, Georgia return to school on Monday. Most of the middle school and high school students in predominantly Black will be going to schools that did not meet federally mandated academic standards. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the number of schools that Mettheir federally mandated academic standards dropped precipitously to 53.6 percent — a 23-point decline from last year — according to results released Friday by state officials.

"There is no magic wand that I have," said DeKalb Schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis, who presented those results to outspokenly disappointed school board members Friday. "Staff and I certainly acknowledge we have a lot of work to do."

Thirty-four DeKalb elementary schools did not make adequate yearly progress this year. Last year, that number was five. The culprit? Mathematics, just as in schools statewide, said Deputy Superintendent Gloria Talley, who leads the system's instructional efforts,

Nine DeKalb high schools made AYP this year, down from 12 in 2007. Eleven DeKalb middle schools made AYP this year, a two-school increase over 2007. Still, among the nine middle schools that did not make AYP this year, Talley said, mathematics scores impacted eight of them.

Although, the school board was upset with the findings, to date, there have been no reports of county-wide initiatives to correct this disturbing trend.

2008 AYP results for DeKalb County, Georgia
(Middle & High Schools, only)
Avondale High SchoolDid Not Meet
Avondale Middle SchoolMet
Cedar Grove High SchoolDid Not Meet
Cedar Grove Middle SchoolMet
Chamblee Charter High SchoolMet
Chamblee Middle SchoolMet
Chapel Hill Middle SchoolMet
Clarkston High SchoolDid Not Meet
Columbia High SchoolDid Not Meet
Columbia Middle SchoolDid Not Meet
Cross Keys High SchoolMet
Dekalb Academy of Tech and EnvironmentMet
Dekalb Early College AcademyMet
DeKalb High School of Tech-NorthDid Not Meet
DeKalb PATH Academy Charter SchoolMet
DeKalb School of the ArtsMet
Destiny Academy of Excellence Charter SchoolDid Not Meet
Druid Hills High SchoolMet
Dunwoody High School Did Not Meet
Freedom Middle SchoolDid Not Meet
Henderson Middle SchoolMet
Heritage Educational CenterDid Not Meet
Lakeside High SchoolMet
Lithonia High SchoolDid Not Meet
Lithonia Middle SchoolMet
Margaret Harris High SchoolDid Not Meet
Martin Luther King, Jr. High SchoolDid Not Meet
Mary McLeod Bethune Middle SchoolDid Not Meet
McNair High SchoolDid Not Meet
McNair Middle SchoolDid Not Meet
Miller Grove High SchoolDid Not Meet
Miller Grove Middle SchoolMet
Open Campus High SchoolDid Not Meet
Peachtree Middle SchoolDid Not Meet
Redan High SchoolMet
Redan Middle SchoolDid Not Meet
Salem Middle SchoolDid Not Meet
Sequoyah Middle SchoolMet
Shamrock Middle SchoolMet
Southwest DeKalb High SchoolMet
Stephenson High SchoolMet
Stephenson Middle SchoolMet
Stone Mountain High SchoolDid Not Meet
Stone Mountain Middle SchoolDid Not Meet
The Champion Middle Theme SchoolMet
Towers High SchoolDid Not Meet
Tucker High SchoolDid Not Meet
Tucker Middle SchoolDid Not Meet




Read the AJC article on DeKalb County Public Schools here.

Read the 2008 AYP Results for DeKalb County Public Schools here.

plez sez: this is a very disturbing report on the heels of CNN's Black in America documentary from a week ago. this national trends showing increasing breakdowns of the family, an increasing number of Black boys choosing not to graduate from high school, and a very high incarceration rate for men who do not graduate from high school (over 60 percent).

dekalb county, georgia is predominantly Black, but far from the urban, lower class environment that is normally portrayed on the news and on television. there is a burgeoning middle-class Black population here. rolling subdivisions with large McMansions, manicured lawns, a big mall with all the fixin's, and a failing education structure. the sorry state of the public schools in dekalb county will help to depress the already depressing housing market, it will not be attract businesses, nor will it attract homeowners (and taxpayers) who look hard at the quality of neighborhood schools.

this educational ship must be righted soon or dekalb county schools will go the way of clayton county schools. the clock is ticking...




2 comments:

Hathor said...

To improve math scores in elementary school, the game 24. When my son was in school the kid's loved the game and the competitions between classes, grade levels and schools. His elementary school competed against a middle school in the finals in the district.

If you would start with the easy version in the 1st grade, I think the most hard nose kid would learn arithmetic.

I don't really think I am being naive. I think that are two many teachers who really don't see certain children as capable. There are two many school systems stuck on the proper methods of teaching and curriculum. I wonder how anyone got educated in the 18th and 19th century thru high school when many teachers had not attended a teachers college and the teachers only had a high school education. Those children were able to attend the top ten colleges on scholarships. Now, it take a teacher with a Masters in Education to be qualified. Very few schools even have science, math or literary majors teaching those subjects.

Many black people had illiterate parents and those out of slavery may not have had any parents to support them, however they were able to go to a public school and become educated. Many of those schools were substandard by todays standards and by No child left behind's. If you don't have teachers that are motivated to teach small children, it is difficult to overcome what missing, even with involved parents.

I have always wondered why one could not teach a 4, 5 or 6 year old how to read. When we cant, we are saying that all black children are defective. If poverty was an issue in learning, black people would not have progressed.

I'll stop the rant now.

plez... said...

hathor,

looks like a fun game. i would've enjoyed it when i was in school.

it seems to me that the "dirty little secret" of public education is the desire (or need) to consider most (if not all) Black children to be special needs. as the children get older, they expect less and less of them, until the children fall victim to the low expectations of them.

i don't subscribe to that notion. i feel that all children are inherently curious and they all have a desire to learn. it is only when WE tell them (either explicitly or implicitly by our actions) that they are not as smart as others (white, Asian, etc.), then we begin to dim their thirst for learning and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

i could go ON & ON... but i'll stop my rant here! i'm with you 100 percent!