Foundation Honors Georgia's 17 "No Excuses" Schools 

Atlanta (May 22, 2007) - Seventeen schools from across Georgia were announced as "No Excuses" schools today at a news conference by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation held at Muscogee County's Rigdon Elementary School.

   The announcement was made at Rigdon Elementary School in Columbus because of the school's outstanding student achievement and because Rigdon has succeeded in appearing multiple times on the Foundation's list of No Excuses schools. These schools have above-average percentages of low-income students with significantly higher academic scores than statistical projections based on the statewide relationship between poverty and test scores.

   Rigdon, in its seventh year of year-round school and uniform implementation, has an estimated 15-to-1 teacher-student ratio for its 220 students, according to Principal Phyllis Jones. 

   The selection of No Excuses schools is based on the Foundation's 2007 "Report Card for Parents," a searchable database of statistics on Georgia's public schools available at www.gppf.org.

   Foundation education expert Dr Holly Robinson described the schools as demonstrating the "impact of highly motivated, dedicated teachers, dynamic leadership, active parent and community support, and high expectations for all students."

   "They prove that regardless of socioeconomic status or race, the 'no excuses' philosophy - caring about academic gains and a focus on student achievement - works," she added.

   The 2007 Report Card for Parents numerically ranks 1,176 public elementary schools, 476 middle schools and 369 high schools in the state by achievement score and the percentage of students exceeding standards. Because there is a strong link between poverty and test scores (the higher the poverty rate, the lower the test scores), the report includes two other criteria for information purposes only. The first is the poverty rate - the percentage of students in each school who qualify for the federal free/reduced-price lunch program. The second is a poverty index that measures how well a school is performing relative to its poverty rate. 

   The 2007 No Excuses schools are:

Rigdon Road Elementary School (Muscogee County)
SW Laurens Elementary School (Laurens County)
White Elementary School (Atlanta Public Schools)
East Lake Elementary School (APS)
Capitol View Elementary School (APS)
Union Point Elementary School (Greene County)
Greensboro Elementary School (Greene County)
Oglethorpe Elementary School (APS)
NW Laurens Elementary School (Laurens County)
Monte Sano Elementary School (Richmond County)
Dimon Elementary School (Muscogee County)
Cascade Elementary School (APS)
Pearson Elementary School (Atkinson County)
Benning Hills Elementary School (Muscogee County)
Pepperell Primary School (Floyd County)
Screven County High School (Screven County)
Washington County High School (Washington County)

   "These schools break the mold and prove that closing the achievement gap is not only possible, but is being done," said Rogers Wade, president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. The Foundation, formed in 1991, is a nonpartisan, member-supported research and education foundation that promotes free markets, limited government and individual responsibility. 

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Roswell, McIntosh seniors named Presidential Scholars

By KEVIN DUFFY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/24/07

Out of 90,000 public school seniors in Georgia, two were chosen.

Becoming a Presidential Scholar means beating incredible odds. But unlike winning the lottery, selection has nothing to do with luck. Scholars are picked by a 27-member commission of presidential appointees who consider test scores, essays and activities, including community service.

Becky Stein/SPECIAL

Maia Bageant of Roswell High School plays Sunday during the baccalaureate service. She plans to attend MIT in the fall.

W.A. BRIDGES JR./STAFF

Craig Western of McIntosh High School sits with his girlfriend Hannah Thompson on Wednesday during lunch after graduation practice.

Nationwide, 141 students received the honor this year. The two Georgia honorees come from the Northside and Southside of metro Atlanta.

"I just started laughing," Roswell High School senior Maia Bageant said when a FedEx envelope arrived at her home this month and she learned the good news. "It just seemed surreal."

Craig Western, a senior at McIntosh High School in Peachtree City, said he found out he had been chosen when an employee at school congratulated him and he wondered why they did that.

"I was amazed," Western said. And his parents, Vern and Phyllis Western? "They too were also amazed."

But extraordinary achievements are sort of par for the course for the two 18-year-olds, who graduate Friday.

Both are valedictorians with GPA test scores above 4.0. Both had perfect or near-perfect scores on the SAT and ACT. And both have broad interests that keep them fully engaged with their peers.

Bageant performs classical music to remind herself that while physics might be a snap, Telemann and Bach are not.

"I go play the violin and learn life is not easy. Life is hard," she said.

The daughter of Charles and Nancy Bageant plays in a quartet that includes Led Zeppelin in its repertoire. "We have an excellent arrangement of 'Stairway to Heaven,' " she said.

Western runs track, water skis and salsa dances. Salsa caught his attention during down time at an engineering seminar when some of his colleagues took to the dance floor.

"I wanted to be able to understand what they were doing," he said.

Presidential Scholars are required to pick a teacher for special recognition. Bageant chose English teacher Allyson Williams, and Western picked math teacher Diane Freeman.

Students and teachers will be honored next month during a four-day trip to Washington. That's where Bageant and Western will first meet.

Later, Bageant heads to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., and Western to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Western looks like a California surfer dude, with blond curls, blue eyes and tan. He's never caught a wave but said he plans to someday.

Reading Samuel Beckett's absurdist play "Waiting for Godot," about two men who do little but talk, Western said he learned "to embrace life and take opportunities when they're presented to you."

Bageant said she awaits the opportunity "to make lasting change."

"I really want to do something that when it's over I feel like it was worth the time it took," she said.

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Narrowing The Grade-School Standards Gap

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga., May 30, 2007

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(CBS) Good grades always make teachers happy.

And in Georgia, there were plenty of smiles after statewide testing of students, CBS News correspondent Kelly Wallace reports.

Eighty-seven percent of the state's fourth-graders were rated proficient in reading in 2005. But when Georgia's performance is measured nationally, the numbers tell a different story: Only 26 percent of the state's fourth-graders were rated proficient on a national reading test given to a sample of students in each state — a gap of 61 points.

Was the superintendent alarmed?

"Absolutely," said Douglas Remillard, superintendent of the Douglas County School System outside Atlanta. "I think all of us in education were alarmed by the gap. Our teachers were doing a pretty good job, and our test scores were pretty good, but then we didn't stack up nationally against other states."

Georgia is not alone, Wallace reports. Mississippi, Tennessee and Oklahoma are among the states in which students scored high on their state tests but significantly lower on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam, according to the non-partisan Hoover Institution.

The problem, say experts, is one word: proficiency.

Each state can come up with its own definition. There is no national standard. States devise their own tests and their own standards. That has some states crying foul, accusing other states of lowering the bar to make their schools look more successful.

Just across the border from Georgia is South Carolina.

The two states score the same on that national test, but have very different results on their state tests. Just 36 percent of South Carolina fourth-graders were rated proficient in reading — far below Georgia's 87 percent.

"We are operating on a very uneven playing field right now," said Jim Ray, superintendent of the Spartanburg School District.

Ray said his state's standards are tougher than Georgia's. That could end up hurting South Carolina.

Schools face sanctions if they fail to meet proficiency levels required under No Child Left Behind.

"We would like not to be put in a position of having to lower standards to compete," Ray said. "They should be put in a position of raising, or balancing, standards so there is an even, fair evaluation of all 50 states."

Says Georgia's Superintendent for Education, Kathy Cox: "I just don't think they're looking at what Georgia has done over the course of No Child Left Behind. We're actually raising expectations for our kids, not running away."

Congress is considering making changes to the law. Some states aren't waiting. Cox says she's rolling out a new curriculum — and toughening requirements for proficiency.

"We don't want this gap," Cox said. "We think we are doing a good job of educating kids in Georgia, and we're not satisfied at all."

Experts say narrowing the gap will mean more students are making the grade — and that will be a real reason to smile.

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