11 Macon schools under-performing by state standards. Local district’s plans to improve them

Bibb County School leaders provided academic updates on the district’s 11 federally recognized, low-performing schools, as well as ongoing strategies for improvement in a board meeting Thursday.

Under the federal “Every Student Succeeds Act,” states are required to identify schools in need of additional support. In Georgia, these designations are referred to as Comprehensive Support and Improvement, Targeted Support and Improvement and Additional Targeted Support & Improvement.

Appling Middle, Bernd Elementary, Bruce Elementary, Hartley Elementary, Ingram-Pye Elementary, Rosa Taylor Elementary, Union Elementary and L.H. Williams Elementary schools were designated as CSI, which means they are among the state’s bottom 5% of schools and require comprehensive support and improvement, Lori Rodgers, BCSD assistant superintendent of district effectiveness and federal programs, said at Thursday’s board meeting.

Westside High School was the only school to be designated with ATSI, which falls in the criteria of one or more identified student groups whose component scores are among the lowest in the state.

Ballard-Hudson Middle and Southfield Elementary schools were identified as Tier IV, two of the 10 lowest-performing schools in the state, Rodgers said.

Five of the eight CSI schools showed overall improvement in all four areas on the Georgia Milestones test: content mastery, math, ELA and science, said Ethell Lett, BCSD assistant superintendent of teaching and learning.

Taylor Elementary School only improved in the math area. Appling Middle School improved in the math and content mastery areas. Ingram-Pye Elementary School excelled in three subjects except math.

Westside High also made assessment improvements, but they did not meet state targets, Lett added. Both Tier IV schools improved and met the state standards.

Back in June, the district and superintendent faced scrutiny from the state board of education for the increase of federally identified schools.

Eight Bibb County schools were federally identified as schools needing improvement, according to the state education department’s 2023 list announced in January. It’s a jump from the 2022 list of five Macon schools.

Lett said the district is implementing a three-pronged approach measure that will ensure sustainability and monitor the identified schools through continuous improvement plans, monthly instructional rounds, leadership training and more.

“The key actions identified to achieve this goal involve the efforts of district intervention coaches, executive officers, school monitoring teams and the district leadership team,” Rodgers added, mentioning that district goals are to increase students assessment scores by 6 percentage points in 2025 on the Georgia Milestones test.

BCSD will also implement intervention tools, such as Lexonik, to provide support for students with disabilities at Westside High to score higher in American Literature, Rodgers said.

Board member Daryl Morton asked when will the district will know when the schools will be moved off the list.

Rodgers said they will not know if they’re off the state list until fiscal year 2026 because CSI and ATSI schools are designated every three years.

This story was originally published December 23, 2024 at 6:00 AM.