Category Archives: DeKalb County School District

$3M Grant To Grow DeKalb Schools Central Office

Centralization

DeKalb Schools receives $3 million to grow central office in an attempt to figure out what the Soviets could never figure out, how to make centralization work.
According to a DeKalb Schools News Release, “The purpose of the initiative is to improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools by providing more effective instructional support to school level leaders.”  The Wallace Foundation grant is born from Rethinking Leadership, a report commissioned by Council of the Great City Schools, which came to the conclusion that schools don’t have enough central office staff managing and supporting schools.
The four goals stated by the initiative are

  • Restructuring central-offices and reducing the number of principals supervisors oversee
  • Re-writing regional superintendent job description to emphasize instructional support for principals
  • Decentralizing financial resources and authority to the regional level
  • Assessing the effectiveness and effects of these activities across the districts

I’m not sure how adding central office staff and moving authority from one part of the central office to another will improve academic achievement.  I’m concerned about growing central office and supporting these new positions once the $3 million runs out.  This is a textbook example of how government programs grow.
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Graduation Rates – Georgia and DeKalb Schools

According to Education Week, Georgia’s high school graduation rate, 70%, lags behind all but two states. DeKalb Schools’ Class of 2013 graduation rate of 59% is at the bottom of that barrel. Below are graphs showing the graduation rates for the individual high schools and graduation rates across the country.
DeKalb Schools 4 Year Cohort Graduation Rates
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