School officials accept ‘challenge’
Educators respond to local schools being named as possible OSD schools.
When they read that their schools could possibly end up on the state’s Opportunity School District list, principals Tonya Wood and Vondell Ringer decided they weren’t going to let it affect their staff, their students or their pride in their schools.
State Rep. Mike Glanton named North Heights and Main elementary schools — both Rome City Schools — and Floyd County’s Coosa Middle School when he spoke in Rome last week about the OSD for failing schools.
If voters approve a proposed constitutional amendment on Nov. 8, schools scoring less than 60 on the College and Career Ready Performance Index for three consecutive years would be taken into the state OSD, run by someone chosen by the governor.
Glanton, a Jonesboro Democrat who grew up in Rome, said it’s an effort to improve schools that are failing their students. However, a number of school systems and teacher organizations have voiced opposition to the loss of local control.
“He just threw the names out there,” said Wood, principal at North Heights. “The 2015 CCRPI is the first that listed us as failing. It also was also the first year of the new Georgia Milestones test, which was a lot harder and was given online. Our teachers had not had a chance to prepare our students to do their best.”
The Georgia Milestones test — which counts toward the CCRPI score — has a mix of short-essay and multiple choice questions. Several difficulties arose the first year it was given, including computer malfunctions.
The CCRPI grade also encompasses things such as attendance, which has also seen a standards change, Wood said. Schools are now penalized when a child has more than five absences, instead of the previous 15 days.
“Of course we want them in school. They need to be in school,” Wood said. “But, especially in an elementary school, a child gets a case of the flu and those five days are gone.”
Wood said she has not heard from any parents upset that Glanton named the school.
She has been rallying her teachers and they have been discussing how to improve the school’s grade.
“We have been focusing on keyboarding skills, getting the students used to the method used to take Georgia Milestones,” she said. “We also are working with our literacy coach, who is helping our teachers plan out lessons
and focus on the standards.”
The teachers are also working on narrative writing across grade levels, she added.
Wood admits she was angry that her school was named.
“I was worried about teacher morale, I was confused and disappointed for them because I know they come to work every day and work so hard for our children,” she said.
At Coosa Middle, Ringer was also angry and saw the naming of her school as a challenge, she said.
“Our hearts are in this. From sunup to sundown, we are educators,” she said. “My teachers work during their summer break, to better themselves in workshops and classes, when people assume they just have the whole summer off.”
The staff at Coosa Middle had already started working on plans to improve their students’ performance, she said.
“We have visited other schools with similar demographics that are doing well on the testing and we are developing best practices from that,” Wood said.
There has also been more writing in the classes, not just in language arts, but in science, math and even electives such as art and band.
“Our score will go up,” she said. “This just made us stand together even more. I see this as a challenge, almost like a dare.”
Floyd County Schools Superintendent John Jackson said he is confident Coosa will improve — and that he does not support the proposed OSD amendment.
“For schools that are struggling, I do not see how someone from Atlanta can intervene and make it better,” Jackson said. “There are so many other options out there to help schools. This method was tried and failed in Louisiana. Why are we trying to do something that’s failed?”