Friday, August 22, 2003
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Friday, August 22, 2003 |
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County schools dispute state data By JOHN
THOMPSON
Coweta County school officials are taking a two-pronged attack in countering the state's claims that several schools are in need of improvement. School officials are disputing some of the data used to grade the schools, and last week the Coweta County Board of Education indicated it was also protesting the data. In the last two weeks, the system has learned that 10 of its schools were placed on lists by the Department of Education that indicate the schools have to offer tutoring or transfers or just shore up the testing scores at the school. Public Information Officer Dean Jackson said four schools receiving Title One funds from the federal government were earmarked for tutoring or transfers: Jefferson Parkway Elementary, Newnan Crossing Elementary, Smokey Road Middle and Evan Middle. But the system has already had Newnan Crossing removed from the list, and is working on the others. "Every school met or exceeded the academic standards. It's just that we have questions with some of their data," Jackson said. He explained that 95 percent of the students must take the different tests the state uses to evaluate the schools. Additionally, there are several subgroups evaluated at each school, such as special education and ethnic groups. In the subgroups, 95 percent of the students must also take the tests. "We think that we can show where we have had enough students taking the tests," Jackson said. Six other schools also made a needs improvement list last week, but will not have to offer tutoring or transfers because they don't receive any Title One funds. Jackson said the schools on the latest list were Arnall Middle, East Coweta Middle, Madras Middle, East Coweta High, Northgate High and Newnan High. "We're also going back and investigating the numbers at those schools. There just seems to be discrepancies between the state and our count," he said. Jackson did not know when the issue would be settled, but said the school system wants to make sure all the data is evaluated fairly. "Being on these lists has a bad connotation, and we want to make sure that mistakes weren't made," he added.
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