6 schools in Whitfield, 1 in Dalton didn't meet requirements

Dalton Middle School was the only one of eight Dalton Public Schools to not meet the requirements of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) this year.

While Dalton Middle met criteria in 16 of 17 categories, it did not meet AYP criteria for math performance among the subgroup of students with disabilities.

“Those are our special education students, and they wouldn’t be in that classification if they didn’t have challenges,” said Virginia Foley, student services director for Dalton Public Schools. “That’s why everybody struggles with that subgroup. We are, however, making strides. This year, we didn’t meet standards in math only. We did make it in English.”

Dalton Middle has 120 students with disabilities among a total enrollment of 1,450 students. Last year, DMS also failed to meet AYP in both English and math Criterion Referenced Competency Testing (CRCT) for “ELL” students — “English Language Learners” — for whom English is a second language. So this year, DMS improved in three of those four areas.

“And I think that next year, we’ll make a big difference in that final area. We’re implementing a math framework in which all teachers will be trained. Our seventh-grade teachers start tomorrow in Training by Design to meet new standards,” Foley said. “We’re working together as a team to develop a curriculum. Attacking these problems is making a difference and will continue to make a difference.”

Two years ago, Dalton Middle did make AYP. But because the school has now failed to meet AYP two years in a row, it has been placed on the state’s “needs improvement” list, meaning the system must offer a “school choice” if possible and “supplemental services.”

“If we had another middle school in our district, we would have to give students the opportunity to transfer. But we don’t, so we can’t,” Foley said. “Supplemental services would be offering tutoring services outside the school day at no charge to students in the area of need. Next year, that will be offered on a larger scale by a contract service or by paid teachers.”

City Park Elementary did make AYP for the second year in a row after missing the mark in 2004.

“The City Park staff has worked really hard to offer supplemental services, and those students have worked hard,” Foley said. “They’ve changed the way they’re delivering services to students with disabilities. It’s more of an ‘inclusion model’, with students exposed to grade-level work in the same classroom as other students. We’re really proud of them for all their hard work.”

Whitfield County Schools

Six of Whitfield County Schools’ 18 schools did not meet AYP: the Career Academy, Dawnville Elementary School, Eastside Elementary School, North Whitfield Middle School, Northwest Whitfield High School and Southeast High School.

Dawnville Elementary, North Whitfield Middle and Southeast are listed as “needs improvement” schools. Dawnville Elementary and Southeast must offer school choice and supplemental services, while North Whitfield Middle must offer school choice.

The Career Academy met three of four categories; Dawnville met 11 of 13; Eastside met 12 of 13; North Whitfield Middle met 12 of 13; Northwest Whitfield High met eight of 10; and Southeast met nine of 10.

“The results were not unexpected,” said Richard Schoen, executive director of assessment and accountability for Whitfield County Schools. “We have an opportunity to study their figures and to correct any errors that might be present. ... We’re always disappointed when all of our schools don’t make AYP. At the same time, we hope the public will understand that it doesn’t reflect the overall achievements of the school system.”

Schoen said the school system can continue to submit testing results and he expects Southeast to eventually be granted AYP status. He said the school was listed as “needs improvement” because of a subgroup dealing with Hispanic graduation rates.

“We expect with testing done this summer for Southeast to make AYP,” he said.

The Career Academy failed to meet attendance criteria under AYP.

“The test scores were fine,” Schoen said. “People see that and they assume that something’s wrong academically and that wasn’t the case. We were very pleased from the test results at the Career Academy.”

As for offering school choice, Schoen said, “The board (of education) makes the decision on school choice. The board has to offer two elementary schools that parents can choose to attend, and one middle school. We’ve done this in the past and we’ve had very few people take advantage.”

Schoen said he did not know what supplemental services might have to be offered by the school system.

As for addressing those schools that did not meet AYP, Schoen said, “You continue to address your overall student achievement, and I can tell you that every child in grades 1-8 who does not meet expectations on the CRCT, which is the exam that’s given to determine student achievement in Georgia, we develop a plan for those children dealing with accelerated additional and differentiated instruction designed to bring them to grade level within a period of a year.”

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