Category Archives: Opportunity School District

Legislation To Help Failing Schools In DeKalb

Governor Deal unveiled a plan Wednesday allowing the state to assume management and operations of failing schools. This post was adapted from How Nathan Deal’s bid to rescue failing schools would work by Greg Bluestein at the AJC.
The enabling legislation creates an Opportunity School District which would pick up 20 failing schools each year. The overall number would be capped at 100 and the program would start in the 2017 school year.  The Opportunity School District would be led by a superintendent who reports directly to the Governor and would be outside the jurisdiction of the Ga DOE and State Superintendent.
What schools would be taken over? Schools that score below a 60 on the state’s College and Career Performance Index three years running which includes 26 of DeKalb’s schools listed below.
Once the decision to intervene is made, the superintendent of the new district can choose between four options:

  • Direct state management of the school
  • Shared governance with a local school board
  • Conversion to a charter school
  • Closure of the school

The opportunity school district’s superintendent would pick the school leadership team. Each opportunity school would have a nonprofit board to oversee its governance.
26 of the 141 schools in need of recovery are in DeKalb:

School CCRPI
2012
CCRPI
2013
CCRPI
2014
Browns Mill Elementary 54 55 51
Canby Lane Elementary 58 58 47
Cedar Grove Elementary 57 53 58
Cedar Grove Middle School 58 48 54
Clifton Elementary 52 54 46
Columbia Elementary 53 52 49
Columbia High School 53 58 56
Dunaire Elementary 58 59 50
Miller Elementary 53 53 50
Fairington Elementary 50 56 55
Flat Rock Elementary 50 52 58
Flat Shoals Elementary 42 54 50
Freedom Middle School 56 59 52
Knollwood Elementary 47 41 54
MLK Jr High School 57 60 60
Meadowview Elementary 42 44 53
Midway Elementary 52 46 48
Oakview Elementary 48 58 51
Panola Way Elementary 58 44 51
Redan Elementary 50 50 48
McNair Elementary 47 50 42
Salem Middle School 56 50 58
Snapfinger Elementary 50 55 56
Stoneview Elementary 49 47 45
Toney Elementary 56 50 48
Towers High School 57 48 56