North Atlanta Cluster Schools Update Provides Good News

Patch Staff Report

The local organization, North Atlanta Parents for Public Schools (NAPPS), aims to increase its ability to educate and inform parents in the North Atlanta school cluster by providing more focused and relevant events and to be a resource for parents in areas such as special education, Hispanic relations, interaction with the new Board of Education and overall representation within APS and the greater Atlanta community.

The following is a recap of NAPPS monthly meeting in March. The next meeting is set to take place on April 23 at noon at North Atlanta High School. More info can be found here.

By Lisa Perlin

The NA Cluster school principals gave a comprehensive presentation on the state of our schools, and the positive news and improving statistics impressed the large crowd present at Garden Hills on March 26th for the monthly NAPPS lunch meeting. This is excellent news for our cluster and the families who have remained committed to our public schools!

Presentation Highlights:

• NA Cluster is far exceeding any large city public school system in test scores, graduation rates and rigor of curriculum.
• Collaboration between the schools has increased dramatically.  Schools are no longer focused primarily at their own needs but instead are working together to make improvements and share successes across our entire cluster.
• NAHS is growing tremendously in AP course level offerings. Goal is to provide rigor for all students regardless if students are going for the IB diploma (“the Maserati of curriculums”).
• NA Cluster has the highest population of ESOL students in APS and also the highest population of gifted students in the district.
• Top goals for the next year for the NA Cluster: (1) increase attendance, lowering by 5% the number of students absent for 10 days or more and (2) increase CRCT scores in ELA, Reading and Math by 5% points.

Dr. Taylor’s Statement on NAHS Graduation Rates:

• NAHS spent time to find the 200 students previously classified by APS in the drop out percentage b/c the system was unable to locate the students. Previously calculations showed graduation rate at roughly 60% so while the graduation rate was low, it was actually higher than publicized given these 200 students. In actuality it was more likely to be in the low 70% range.
• Current data shows NAHS is doing an impressive job with 4 year graduation rates.  It is now in the 80% range.
• Most of the schools with higher 4 year graduation rates are not Title I schools and therefore, are not faced with the effects of significant poverty on learning.   NAHS is an urban, Title I school with over half of our students living at or below the poverty rate in 2013.
• Even more impressive news is NAHS is closing the achievement gap between students in the African American and Caucasian Subgroups, with students in our Caucasian Subgroup achieving an 85.7% graduation rate and students in our African American Subgroup achieving an 80.4% graduation rate in 2013.
• Additionally, we are closing this high gap, so that a greater percentage of students than ever before in our Caucasian and African American Subgroups are graduating within 4 years, with NAHS having one of the highest 4 year graduation rates of African American students in urban schools in the nation.
• While much more work needs to be done, and will be done, to support students in our Hispanic Subgroup, our students in the NAHS Hispanic Subgroup are outperforming Hispanic students in APS and the State of Georgia.
• NAHS is the only high school in Atlanta Public Schools with a large Hispanic and ESOL population.
• We know NAHS is fortunate to have possibly the most diverse public high school in APS, we also know we have to do a more effective job actualizing the potential of our Hispanic students to take our students, school, community and district to the next level.
• Finally, a close look at the significant achievement NAHS is making with our students in the Economically Disadvantaged Subgroup is definitely warranted. One is hard-pressed to find a factor more negatively related to student learning than poverty. However, at NAHS, our students in the Economically Disadvantaged Subgroup have a graduation rate higher than the average 4 year graduation rate for APS, the state of Georgia, and the nation.

NORTH is the direction to EXCELLENCE!   Stay committed and go North!

In addition to the principals’ presentation, each of our PTA Leadership Teams spoke about their successes and challenges. At all of our schools, communication to parents and increasing parental involvement are our biggest challenge. Some schools are seeing great improvements in this area by utilizing technology to their advantage or robo calls to reach our Latino community.  Transportation was another area of joint concern where future collaboration is likely, and Sutton and NAHS are looking to elementary schools to improve vertical marketing and promotion of their schools so we can further enhance our K-12 Cluster.

Great things happening at each of our NA Cluster schools:

• New Foundation and first ever fund-raiser at Bolton, families are getting more involved and are committed; this is a historical moment for Bolton!
• Great community involvement on the E. Rivers field issue, which was resolved in their favor thanks to everyone voicing their opinion!
• Improved marketing and communications at Garden Hills leading to a greatly improved perception of the school and increased volunteer participation with Sign Up Genius.
• Jackson has made numerous improvements geared towards simplifying processes and using technology to its advantage (SET program) for volunteer programs. They created robo calls for all communication in English & Spanish, used an app for creating sub groups for transportation routes so neighborhoods know where buses are on their route. For the auction, they offered fewer items than in years past and the result was positive (they earned 80% of revenue with fewer items showing that less was not detrimental to their fundraising).
• Morris Brandon went through a positive IB evaluation process recently and also did an extensive safety audit and is making changes based on specific recommendations.
• Good programs going on at Sarah Smith that are addressing their large size and increased Hispanic community while at the same time trying maintaining that small community feel that all elementary families want to experience.
• Sutton has survived big changes with the move to new campus. Sports programs are thriving and plans are being worked on for the 6th Grade Academy once E. Rivers moves back to their permanent location.
• North Atlanta is having success reaching out to the Latino community and working parents.

Remember, without your ongoing support and commitment to public education, none of this would be possible. Please stay engaged, learn about your school and cluster needs while voicing your opinion!