Monthly Archives: July 2014

NAACP Fuels the Fires of Racial Tensions in DeKalb Schools

Posted on July 9, 2014 by | 3 comments


The AJC reported in 2010, “DeKalb schools hired its attorneys based on race. DeKalb school board members admit they voted last year to spend almost $1 million more on attorneys to ensure they had a black female attorney working with them.”
Board member Gene Walker infamously said at the time, “I am a very, very race-conscious person. I will never ever try to lead you to believe that I am race-neutral. I see color. I appreciate color. I celebrate color and I love color.”
Apparently not much has changed since then.
In November 2012, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan law firm announced they would no longer represent DeKalb Schools.  John Evans, President of the NAACP DeKalb County Branch, plead before the school board this week to look past qualifications and a “straight forward bid process” and hire a “black firm”.
Evans said, “I know that realistically that in a normal straight forward bid process [black firms] won’t make it. I know we won’t make it.”  Evans went on to suggest they “massage” the process to make sure we have black representation.
Message to Mr. John Evans,
I’m saddened that instead of fighting discrimination and the disenfranchisement of African Americans, you use your position with the NAACP to fuel the fires of racial tensions in DeKalb.  Like a very wise man once said, “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Yours In Service,
Stan Jester
You can see the video of John’s Evans public comments on FactChecker.  Below is the transcript of his speech to the DeKalb Schools Board and Superintendent.
John Evans (President of the NAACP DeKalb County Branch)
I’m here on a mission of mercy. I know these legal services are floating around somewhere. We’ve heard the ones you had retired. We want to know where the process is. The one thing we have as a problem at the NAACP is that we can never be sure blacks are going to be represented. We want to make it clear that we are expecting that process to work.
If you know you don’t have all the ingredients, you have to do something to make it work. The makeup of this board and the makeup of this county almost demands that we have good representation from black law firms. We are not talking about who, what or where, but we are certainly talking about having some. I think you all understand what I mean.
If we don’t do it, nobody else is going to do it. If we have control and we don’t use it, nobody else is going to work it out for us. We have to take what we have and mandate that we want some black firms in that process. I know that realistically that in a normal straight forward bid process we won’t make it. I know we won’t make it. So, we’re asking that those believe in doing the right thing to make sure that the ingredient of black law firms is involved in the process.
I don’t know what you have to do. I don’t know what you’ve done to date. But that process needs to be looked at to make sure that we have representation. We can’t say it too many times that we need black representation in the legal matters of this system. I hope that you all will certainly put your minds to it, whatever you need to do to massage it.
Make sure you do that, for if you don’t, I say it will be an injustice to this district. We’ve had black representation most of the time here recently. We hope and expect you to do it again this time.

3 Comments

Posted in Board Meetings

2014 DeKalb Elementary School CRCT Rankings

Posted on July 8, 2014 by | 5 comments

CRCT tests in Reading, English/Language Arts and Mathematics are administered annually to elementary students in 1st through 5th grade. Due to budgetary constraints, the CRCT in 1st and 2nd grade were not administered in the 2013-2014 school year.
In each subject and in each grade, the state established a grade level threshold that determines whether a student met the state’s standard. This table averages the percentage of students that performed at or above grade level in each subject area. (Math Shown Here)

Rank School 3rd 4th 5th Combined Avg
1 Wadsworth 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
2 Kittredge 99.9% 100.0% 99.9%
3 Vanderlyn 98.6% 98.4% 100.0% 99.0%
4 Austin 96.6% 97.7% 97.4% 97.2%
5 Museum School 96.3% 94.4% 100.0% 96.9%
6 Fernbank 97.3% 96.8% 96.5% 96.9%
7 Oak Grove 95.1% 94.7% 96.9% 95.6%
8 Dunwoody 96.0% 93.6% 96.3% 95.3%
9 Montgomery 94.1% 94.7% 95.3% 94.7%
10 Robert Shaw 89.9% 92.5% 94.3% 92.3%
11 Ashford Park 96.9% 93.3% 86.3% 92.1%
12 Wynbrooke 91.9% 90.5% 93.5% 91.9%
13 The Globe Academy 90.5% 90.5%
14 Livsey 93.5% 85.3% 92.1% 90.3%
15 Sagamore Hill 88.1% 94.6% 88.1% 90.3%
16 Laurel Ridge 88.0% 89.9% 92.0% 90.0%
17 Leadership Prep 92.4% 87.3% 90.0% 89.9%
18 Briarlake 95.3% 86.2% 87.2% 89.6%
19 Chesnut 91.2% 83.2% 93.2% 89.2%
21 Dekalb Academy 87.0% 88.7% 88.5% 88.1%
22 Hawthorne 85.8% 88.0% 88.0% 87.3%
23 Huntley Hills 90.0% 80.9% 90.0% 87.0%
24 Narvie Harris 85.5% 86.5% 87.1% 86.4%
25 Henderson Mill 87.6% 81.7% 89.4% 86.2%
26 Marbut 87.2% 82.9% 86.8% 85.7%
27 Midvale 85.0% 82.9% 89.0% 85.6%
28 Evansdale 83.9% 84.9% 86.3% 85.0%
29 Brockett 77.4% 85.0% 92.7% 85.0%
30 Edward Bouie 83.6% 86.6% 83.3% 84.5%
31 Oakcliff 86.5% 84.5% 81.7% 84.3%
32 Pleasantdale 86.4% 81.1% 82.6% 83.3%
33 Kingsley 86.8% 89.4% 72.8% 83.0%
34 Briar Vista 78.2% 81.1% 87.6% 82.3%
35 Intl Comm School 79.5% 82.3% 79.4% 80.4%
36 Woodridge 76.0% 75.3% 82.7% 78.0%
37 Hightower 81.7% 72.0% 77.3% 77.0%
38 Smoke Rise 72.1% 72.0% 83.1% 75.7%
39 Rock Chapel 72.1% 69.2% 84.4% 75.2%
40 Rockbridge 66.3% 75.8% 81.8% 74.7%
41 Mclendon 77.3% 71.8% 72.3% 73.8%
42 Avondale 70.5% 74.7% 75.0% 73.4%
43 Princeton 72.1% 72.1% 75.3% 73.2%
44 Dresden 77.2% 77.1% 65.2% 73.2%
45 Kelley Lake 65.8% 73.7% 79.2% 72.9%
46 Rainbow 70.5% 73.1% 73.5% 72.4%
47 Pine Ridge 69.7% 66.7% 80.3% 72.2%
48 Cary Reynolds 65.6% 73.7% 76.6% 72.0%
49 Browns Mill 71.2% 69.4% 73.9% 71.5%
50 Dekalb Pa Char 70.8% 63.3% 76.7% 70.3%
51 Allgood 70.7% 70.6% 68.6% 70.0%
52 Hambrick 72.4% 67.2% 69.5% 69.7%
53 Bob Mathis 68.8% 67.8% 70.0% 68.9%
54 Shadow Rock 67.7% 64.1% 74.6% 68.8%
55 Fairington 65.8% 66.9% 71.5% 68.1%
56 Flat Rock 66.7% 68.2% 68.7% 67.8%
57 Murphy Candler 66.5% 62.7% 73.7% 67.7%
58 Stone Mill 66.4% 55.3% 81.0% 67.5%
59 Rowland 66.3% 61.2% 71.9% 66.5%
60 Stone Mountain 66.6% 65.7% 66.9% 66.4%
61 Cedar Grove 57.4% 57.9% 83.2% 66.2%
62 Columbia 53.7% 74.6% 68.0% 65.4%
63 Chapel Hill 69.3% 61.6% 64.6% 65.2%
64 Oakview 66.2% 59.8% 68.4% 64.8%
65 Canby Lane 64.1% 62.3% 67.2% 64.5%
66 Idlewood 58.3% 68.4% 65.6% 64.1%
67 Montclair 66.5% 68.3% 57.4% 64.1%
68 Jolly 67.1% 63.4% 60.0% 63.5%
69 Eldridge Miller 61.9% 62.3% 66.1% 63.4%
70 Woodward 63.7% 55.9% 65.7% 61.8%
71 Toney 63.6% 55.3% 66.1% 61.7%
72 Redan 59.9% 62.6% 60.1% 60.9%
73 Indian Creek 58.6% 61.4% 62.6% 60.8%
74 Panola Way 57.0% 61.8% 62.4% 60.4%
75 Dunaire 59.8% 59.1% 62.2% 60.4%
76 Snapfinger 54.4% 55.2% 70.3% 60.0%
77 Clifton 52.5% 58.1% 69.2% 59.9%
78 Meadowview 60.6% 60.4% 56.2% 59.1%
79 Knollwood 51.6% 64.5% 60.7% 58.9%
80 Flat Shoals 57.3% 53.2% 66.1% 58.9%
81 Midway 48.7% 48.9% 64.6% 54.1%
82 Stoneview 49.8% 50.4% 62.0% 54.1%
83 Ronald Mcnair 48.8% 52.3% 56.7% 52.6%

Georgia law says no 3rd grade student will be promoted to the 4th grade if the student does not achieve grade level performance on the third grade CRCT in Reading and no 5th grade student will be promoted to the 6th grade if the student does not achieve grade level performance on the CRCT in Reading and Mathematics.
Use the drop-down menu to choose a specific district, or the state as a whole. Then select the school, or you can choose all schools in a district. In the same way, select a grade or all grades.

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Posted in Michael Thurmond