Three Dougherty County schools designated ‘in need of comprehensive support and improvement’
File Photo: Alan Mauldin
By Alan Mauldin
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ALBANY — Three Dougherty County School System schools were among those identified in the state among the lowest 5% in overall readiness component scores and as needing additional resources to improve student performance.
The 116 schools identified statewide, which includes Dougherty schools Alice Coachman and Northside Elementary Schools and Radium Springs Middle School, were the first to be designated in the state since 2019. One of the system’s schools, Robert H. Harvey Elementary, is coming off the CIS list.
Georgia was one of several states granted a waiver due to data limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They will get additional support, additional resources, both from the district level and the state,” Dougherty Schools Superintendent Ken Dyer said of the local schools listed.
Locally, specialists will develop a school improvement plan for the three campuses to boost student achievement, Dyer said.
Other southwest Georgia schools identified for improvement include Calhoun County Elementary, Stringfellow Elementary in Colquitt County, Mitchell County High, Quitman County Elementary, Sumter County Intermediate, Harper Elementary in the Thomasville City School System, and the Worth County Achievement Center.
Under a new system, all Title I schools are ranked based on the content mastery component score, with the lowest 10% ranked based on progress toward English language proficiency indicator scores. The lowest three-quarters among the second group move to Stage 3, and from among those the closest 5% on the readiness component score are identified for CSI support.
The state noted that a common thread among many of the schools that received the CSI designation was that many are in communities that were hit hard by COVID and are located in high-poverty areas.
Dougherty County at one time had among the world’s highest rates of sickness and death from COVID.
Students in lower-income households often have less resources and support at home than their counterparts in households with higher incomes, Dyer said, and that may have exacerbated the impact during the pandemic.
Since schools re-opened after the worst of the pandemic, the Dougherty system has added learning and enrichment programs to help students make up for the impact, he added. Those include extended summer school, Saturday school sessions held several times a year and after-school programs.
“We do have schools that showed a drop in student achievement that were lower than those other (three),” he said. “We’re making adjustments in our support levels.”
The superintendent’s message to parents was that the school system is working diligently to turn the situation around at Alice Coachman, Northside and Radium Springs.
“I think most of them (parents) are engaged, and they know the work that we are engaged in,” Dyer said. “More resources have been provided, more interventions are being provided, so I think we will see results in the near future.”
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