DeKalb County School District’s (DCSD) four-year graduation rate for the Class of 2020 is 75.97%.
The U.S. Education Department granted permission in the fall of 2020 for state departments of education to exit schools identified as Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) based on graduation rate if the schools meet the state’s exit criteria. Columbia High School and Stone Mountain High School have met the exit criteria and are now removed from the state identified CSI Graduation Rate improvement list.
Graduation Rates By School in DeKalb Schools
Horizon schools are the lowest performing elementary schools identified by the state as measured by CCRPI scores.
Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) are the lowest performing 5% of Title I schools in the state when ranked based on their three-year CCRPI average
Promise Schools are the 5.01% to 10% lowest performing Title I schools in the state when ranked based on their three-year CCRPI average
Turnaround Eligible School (Turnaround Eligible Schools replaces the “Chronically Failing Schools” expression that GOSA used in prior years.) Identified schools have a three-year average College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) score that is in the bottom five percent of the state, excluding non-traditional schools and state special schools.
Priority School is a school which has a 3-year average of CCRPI Content Mastery scores in the lowest 5% or is a high school with a graduation rate less than 60% for 2 consecutive years.
Focus School is a school which has a 3-year average of CCRPI Achievement Gap scores in the lowest 10%. Achievement Gap compares the lowest 25% of achievers in a school with the state average.
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
Will Region 1 get additional funding? Graduation rates for Chamblee and Cross Keys bring our Region 1 rate to fifth of seven, though Dunwoody is the top non charter/magnet school.
Stan, thank you for this great information. ~A
What parameters determine if a student “graduates”, and what happens if they don’t?
Hello @Region 1. Regions generally aren’t funded. Schools have special designations. DeKalb Schools funds and has various programs at different schools depending on their designation. Here are some of the various designations …
Horizon schools are the lowest performing elementary schools identified by the state as measured by CCRPI scores.
Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) are the lowest performing 5% of Title I schools in the state when ranked based on their three-year CCRPI average
Promise Schools are the 5.01% to 10% lowest performing Title I schools in the state when ranked based on their three-year CCRPI average
Turnaround Eligible School (Turnaround Eligible Schools replaces the “Chronically Failing Schools” expression that GOSA used in prior years.) Identified schools have a three-year average College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) score that is in the bottom five percent of the state, excluding non-traditional schools and state special schools.
Priority School is a school which has a 3-year average of CCRPI Content Mastery scores in the lowest 5% or is a high school with a graduation rate less than 60% for 2 consecutive years.
Focus School is a school which has a 3-year average of CCRPI Achievement Gap scores in the lowest 10%. Achievement Gap compares the lowest 25% of achievers in a school with the state average.
Hello @Alison Mercer
HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTS
What happens if students don’t graduate? Good question. There are various paths they can take. Assuming they don’t drop out and would like to graduate, they can stay in high school, get a GED, go to a credit recovery high school, etc … it depends on the student and their circumstance.
What accounts for the difference in grad rates between DHS & CCHS?
What are the five/six year graduation rates? Students who need remediation would fall in those categories and still be on track to success
Do these rates factor in students who move to other schools for magnet programs, etc?
DeKalb celebrates being LAST again. What a idiotic central office.
Atlanta 80.3%
Clayton 76.6%
Decatur 94.9%
DEKALB 76%
Fulton 85.5%
Gwinnett 83.2%
Marietta 83.7%
Statewide 83.8%
AJC this morning
@ Prospective Magnet –
Run. Leave DeKalb. Kittredge and the Chamblee schools aren’t going to compare with what you can get in N. Fulton or even one of the better Gwinnett schools (or the E. Cobb system). I could go through hundreds of examples of quality teachers being run off or earning more money elsewhere, new principals hiring their friends and running off teachers who require discipline and push their kids, and the county overloading schools and underfunding them (while putting a principal in place who needed not one but two coaches and still was removed after 18 months).
But here’s where the rubber meets the road. If I had known what a shitshow Chamblee HS would be when my child entered Kittredge, I would be in Johns Creek right now. The fact that Braaten is still employed at DeKalb and will be in charge of Chamblee’s charter review says it all.
You can get a quality education in Chamblee or DeKalb. But you can get a BETTER education elsewhere. Why set yourself up for the fight?
I have to say I am very surprised at the Chamblee HS numbers. My daughter is Magnet and went to Wadsworth, Salem MS, Southwest Dekalb (9) and has been at Arabia Mountain since 10th and will be graduating this year. It has definitely not been an easy road but starting at Wadsworth in 4th was the best decision ever and Salem MS has the best teachers for Magnet ever. 9th at Southwest was a nightmare but great Magnet teachers and Arabia has been great environment for my daughter and administration is really good hated to see Dr. Swanson go before graduation and although we have had some challenges at Arabia too I think that that is going to happen anywhere you go and you have to be an involved parent and hold the teachers and staff accountable and know that going to the district and regional superintendents is always an option and should be exercised for the good of your child. Have to be there number 1 advocate. I have one more to go that attends Dekalb School of the Arts 10th grader. Wish me luck these last 2 years in Dekalb Schools
Leave… I have worked over 30 years for DCSD, and have witnessed first hand it’s slow decline. Your observations are sadly spot on. This system has grown top heavy, and all of our resources are being sucked dry to pay the salaries of way too much dead wood. The focus of leadership has shifted from our students to protecting their bloated ranks and salaries. We were a better system when you decided to go with Kittredge…
What can we do to fix this besides leaving ? That’s not really realistic for a lot of people who have purchased homes and invested their hard earned money and are close to paying off and like their communities
What parameters determine if a student “graduates” high school? How will this be determined for the 2020-21 Virtual School Year?
Hello @Alison Mercer
HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTS
What happens if students don’t graduate? Good question. There are various paths they can take. Assuming they don’t drop out and would like to graduate, they can stay in high school, get a GED, go to a credit recovery high school, etc … it depends on the student and their circumstance.
What are the five/six year graduation rates? – good question
Do these rates factor in students who move to other schools for magnet programs, etc? -. Special education students count against the school if they choose to stay til 22. ELL students who come from the Intensive English program count against the school. Students who enroll in a new school don’t count against their first school.
@Mary Harris
I’d suggest talking to your principal to see what supports are needed. Some schools have been working hard to increase their graduation rates and would appreciate all the community support they can get.
@leave, run now
Lol!!! That’s called K-A-R-M-A. After how much that lady was harassed and disrespected by entitled parents and teachers it would be like chickens coming home to roost. If she is indeed in charge of Chamblee’s Charter approval, just hope that she has just as much compassion and respect (or less) than what was shown to her while at Chamblee. 2020 has been interesting! Can’t make this stuff up. Lol!!!
The problem with outside Superintendents in DCSD. They are heavily dependent on the people in place unless they bring people with them to have a third eye. AKAs are already winning and being promoted heavily into positions for which they are not qualified; and someone in her ear obviously had an axe to grind with the Chamblee community. People are not hired in DCSD during regular business hours. All leadership posutions are filled Saturday morning….join a sorority or fraternity. PLEASE PUSH FOR A TRUE HR PERSON IN DEKALB!!!
If students with IEPs are allowed/encouraged to stay in school till 22 why do they count against the 4 year graduation rate? Shouldn’t they be counted as graduating on time if they complete their requirements by 22?
@StanJester- Thanks for the graduation requirements, however, they are a decade old. Standardized testing had the brakes put on with COVID. So many kids are doing dismally poor with distance learning. If I were a HS Senior, I would have no idea what it takes to graduate. Or…..how/if the bar has been lowered. Will everyone get a participation trophy, go out into the world… And fail?
@Alison Mercer- Juniors and Seniors meet individually with their school counselor to review requirements. They have been individually informed of the requirements twice during COVID, and discussed their individual progress toward graduation.
@Graduation Requirements –
Your statement is wrong. Juniors and Seniors have NOT met individually with anyone to review their requirements. I’m not sure why you’d say that except to further this belief that online works. IT DOESN’T.
I have an 11th grader. They had a group meeting yesterday, but nothing individual. In fact, we’ve had to ask every year for a one-on-one meeting with counselors.
@Alison Mercer. There hasn’t been an overhaul of graduation requirements, but they do change. “Will everyone get a participation trophy, go out into the world… And fail?” … How is this any different than before COVID? DeKalb Schools has more “Chronically Failing Schools” than any other school district in Georgia.
Hasta La Vista CRCT and EOCT
June 2014 – Georgia agreed to go to a new test and raise its threshold for passing when it sought a waiver from the No Child Left Behind federal education law. After 14 years, the Georgia Milestones test will replace CRCT and EOCT starting next year.
Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT)
On Monday, March 30, 2015, Governor Nathan Deal signed House Bill 91 into law, thereby creating a new code section, O.C.G.A. § 20-2-281.1. This law became effective upon the Governor’s signature.
This law provides that students shall no longer be required to earn a passing score on the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) to earn a high school diploma.
Juniors have their individual meeting around spring break, Seniors in September. So your junior has not had their meeting, but my senior has met with her counselor twice during COVID to review progress toward graduation.
Virtual learning may not be going well, but there are things in place to make sure Seniors aren’t ignorant of their requirements even with COVID
Clayton and DeKalb – lowest scoring counties.
Again, what’s the commonality? Heavy minority school districts. This isn’t hard. Now the woke white liberals can go back to their white savior complex. Carry on.
Look at Region 5. I think this tells us what is going on
Two similar schools. One with double digit growth, one with double digital shrinkage
One had no principal
I suspect that the Towers number (and the others with major decline) are the honest numbers. Those with high growth? Or even with slight?
The principals ordered the teachers to pass everyone regardless of performance (or even participation)
That some have 100% rates tells us that the numbers are being cooked.
Did you notice Tapestry Public Charter School has a 4 year graduation rate of 86.21 with 50% of its students identified as students with Disabilities? #2 when factoring out the schools that have academic minimums. Even more amazing when considering the District’s rate for graduating special education students is 46.4. So proud of Tapestry Public Charter School and its community of students, staff and parents. Tapestry is NOT an alternative school as is indicated. All students are on track for a traditional high school diploma.
Please explain how Michelle Jones, who was appointed based solely on her mother’s influence get a promotion to head HR???? Under her, Clarkston saw no real or sustained gains. While in disarray, there are several capable staff in HR who do the work who could have been interim. What happened to the guy who was supposed to come onboard? Really, Michelle Jones?? This ship is sinking on all sides. Hope the pink and green bubbles come with fragrance because we are going nowhere faster than ever before.
Who is/was Michelle Jones’ mother? Is Jones head of HR or interim? What position did she leave to become HR?
@Demographics, could you say more about your comment? Thanks!
In other testing news, MS teachers are now being asked to burn more scarce class time with unnecessary Benchmark Tests. These county generated tests are intended to provide teachers with data to see how our instruction is doing.
Lovely intention. Useless waste of time unfortunately.
I don’t need poorly written Benchmark Tests to know how my students are doing. I don’t know of any teacher who has ever used the results of these tests to inform their instruction. Does any teacher in DCSS think giving these tests, just weeks after MAP tests, is what we should be subjecting our students to? A huge waste of class time which we should be using for instruction!
@Edugator –
Since you’re worried about burning “more scarce class time” tell me something. Have you contacted your principal or the Super to find out why you’re not allowed to teach more than 30 minutes a day? Has any teacher stood up and said “you know, we’re screwing our kids here, what can we do?”
Of course not. Seems to me your bitching about having to do more work and not concerned at all about helping the kids.
Hello Just,
Yes to all of the above (except the part about griping about more work). Yes, I and most other teachers want more contact time with the kids.
Thanks so much for your input. You are a true role model.
To clarify- we are not shirking from work. We are as ticked off as you are to have so little time to conduct instruction. When DCSD imposes further restrictions on our ability to teach class we get annoyed. We speak out. We are largely ignored.
Do no accuse of of being lazy. We are as concerned about the welfare of our students as anyone and are working our tails off to make this work.
Geez…
The assumptions made about teachers that I see on this blog and in other social media are unfounded. I’d definitely suggest asking a teacher what they do all day before making any judgements. My experience is that teachers bust their butts at work, at home and during the ever shortening summer break for our kids. This on top of constant changes in protocol, computer systems, testing, non-teaching responsibilities, professional development etc. I’m sure we all work hard at our jobs and can empathize with our teachers. Maybe if we listened, supported and related to them we’d see some real cooperation for the benefit of everyone.
2nd semester will return to the normal school times for students and teachers so we can kill the belly aching on here about teachers not working full time.
The benchmarks in elementary are the same benchmarks for the last 2 years, give or take. I guess, that explains why Dr. Linda Frazer was pushed out as well.
re: Who is/was Michelle Jones’ mother? Is Jones head of HR or interim? What position did she leave to become HR?
Her mom used to be on the school board. I don’t know her name though anymore. I know, she was a professor at Clark Atlanta University as well.
She was area supt for Area 4. She is the current interim head. Dr. Campbell who is her coordinator is taking her position in the interim as well.
Michelle Jones’ mother was not on the school board. She was one of Crawford Lewis’ flunkies. I believe she was some hottentot with special ed for the school system. Michelle has ridden mommy’s name from a math classroom at Redan to Interim HR. She is spectacularly lightweight and clearly a harbinger of what to expect with the new regime.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/opinion/coronavirus-school-closures.html?action=click&algo=bandit-all-surfaces&block=more_in_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=761885906&impression_id=7e9b0b10-2a81-11eb-8a30-6b63848b37c0&index=2&pgtype=Article®ion=footer&req_id=987148243&surface=more-in-opinion
Contrary to people’s assumptions because I realize remote learning is not working, I voted for Joe Biden. I have a Warnock sign in my front yard. Those things don’t really matter though, but people have turned this into a political issue, though it isn’t.
If DCSD doesn’t open in-person learning on January 4th, then the blood on their hands won’t be virus related, but because they’ve left behind tens of thousands of students and shaved years off their expected lives.
Totally agree with Common Sense. Does no one in leadership care about the kids and their education?
I keep asking what makes DeKalb so unique – why can’t we do what other districts have already done successfully for months? Can we not benchmark and learn from other district’s experience? Can we not provide more than the minimum amount of live instruction in the classroom (20 minutes per subject for elementary)? The bar is so low in DeKalb – I cannot understand it.
Common sense sure isn’t…..That’s for sure<<<<<
Your statement,"If DCSD doesn’t open in-person learning on January 4th, then the blood on their hands won’t be virus related, but because they’ve left behind tens of thousands of students and shaved years off their expected lives."
What hogwash….you're a trip…january 4th we will be at 400 cases per 100,000 in Dekalb and 300,000 cases per day nationally …I'd like you to show up for face to face covid learning….your tiresome tune would change quickly
“Work. What is work? Well there are some precise definitions but an a good “working” definition is: force through a distance. There are some clear implications most important being that no work is done unless force is applied and that force moves that upon which it is applied. Forward ideally.
This definition is more that just an abstraction, “concept” to educators, it is applicable in the real world, to educators themselves.
Parents want their kids in school. They know that two forty five minute sessions, four days a week, is falls far short of an “adequate education” as mandated in the State Constitution. Teachers, fearful of a return to the classroom, disagree claiming they are doing more work now than they did when in the schoolhouse.
This is where the unbreakable laws of physics and the clear definition of work comes in handy.
Teachers may well be putting in more hours. There may be actual brain strain as they learn that learning is hard and there is a lot for them to learn. But it is equally undeniable that less education is being delivered to our children measured by time, or sooner or later by results on nationally normed tests.
So what is going on?
Well, teachers are NOT doing more work but they ARE expending more effort. One way to look at this by way of efficiency: more effort overwhelmed by less progress yielding less actual work. In the extreme it is like pushing against a wall–lots of effort and energy but the wall doesn’t budge and no work takes place. A more disturbing perspective relates to what work, no matter how minimal is being done. Is it the right work? Is the educational ball being moved in the right direction? Is it enough work or are our students, particularly given DeKalb’s performance on its best day, falling further and further behind their peers throughout the state and the country?
Maybe it is time to acknowledge this isn’t working and no amount of effort is likely to change that.”
https://theotherdunwoody.blogspot.com/2020/11/hey-joules.html
It’s ok “teachers.” We’ve accepted you’re not going to return to work f2f, will continue to “teach” a non-accredited DeKalb distant learning program until fall 2021 or 2022.
Vaccines won’t be enough for you to return like you all used to say. It will be excuses about the vaccines, excuses about every other thing your “educator groups” feed you. Excuses that lockdowns will not be mandated by the person you elected. We get it.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving break. You must be exhausted.
Demographics, you still haven’t clarified your 11/12/8:48 comment about minority systems. On 11/17, you were asked to. Care to take a break from your predictably tedious teacher bashing and elaborate for us?
You seem nice
Demographics moonlights as a Trump lawyer. Therefore, he can never back up falsehoods he spews with any facts!!!
Gwinnett teachers get $700 in hush money this December to stay quiet about Covid spread. The elementary school I worked at before leaving teaching has 5 teachers out with covid right now, and has had several get covid and return from hospitalization since they reopened.
Covid cases “down” to only 285/100,000
Face to Face fanatics will start clamoring for return to classes after xmas vacation.
“Although it may not look like it now, this surge will end and we must continue to prepare our students, staff, and community for the reopening of school buildings,” she wrote. “Based on the advice of experts and guidance we have been leveraging since the start of the pandemic, we are preparing for a January, 2021, reopening of school buildings.”
Who said that? The Super of APS. Even those idiots realize the harm they are doing to the students.
Yet DeKalb chases some unrealistic number.
There just seems to be something “off” about this whole situation of Dekalb schools reopening.
They talk about reopening like it’s a pipe dream.
It will interesting to see what Dekalb does when Biden takes office.
Will they stay their course or “cave” when everyone else openS and Biden pushes for it.
I wonder if this whole thing currently is political?