It's the best of times and the worst of times for schools on Coweta County's east side.

That's the results from this year's Georgia's Report Card for parents, compiled by The Center for Education Policy.

In this year's ranking for elementary schools, White Oak Elementary leads the pack in the county with a statewide ranking of 51st out of 1,065 schools ranked. Canongate ranks 351, while Eastside Elementary in Senoia ranks 685 and Newnan Crossing ranked 991. Thomas Crossroads ranked 208 and Polar road came in at number 306.

In the elementary report, the report card evaluated students' test scores on the math and reading comprehension sections of 1999 Iowa Test of Basic Skills.

While none of his schools ranked in the top 20 in the state, superintendent of education Richard Brooks remained positive about the report.

“Well, we did fairly well. Nearly all of our schools showed improvement,” Brooks said.

With 1,065 schools evaluated statewide, Eastside and Newnan Crossing finished in the bottom 25 percent. But Brooks said the situation at those two schools is turning the corner.

“One thing that the report card doesn't measure is pupil-teacher ratio. We've lowered the ratio in some of our elementary schools down to 15 to 1, where it used to be 30 to 1,” he said.

When the report cards are released next year, Brooks expects to see a dramatic rise in the rankings because of the lower pupil-teacher ratio.

In middle school rankings, Madras Middle ranked the highest in the state at 84, while Arnall ranked number 127 and East Coweta Middle finished at number 236. The report card evaluated 410 middle schools.

The final report card concerned the state's high schools. Northgate had the highest ranking in the county at number 39 out of 319 ranked, while East Coweta came in at 123.

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