Two Atlanta Public Schools make AYP for 11 consecutive years, 80% of APS schools make AYP

Two Atlanta Public Schools elementary schools were recognized by the state today for achieving Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in their students’ performance on Georgia standardized tests for eleven consecutive years. The schools are D.H. Stanton and Fain elementary schools.

Eighty percent of Atlanta Public Schools made AYP last year, which is on par with the state of Georgia. Sixty-five Atlanta Public Schools have consistently made AYP for three or more years.

AYP is essentially a set of criteria used to determine if individual schools are meeting established student performance standards under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.  It requires that all categories of students in a particular school meet minimum academic performance standards, attendance requirements and participation levels in order for the school to be designated as achieving AYP status.

“The fact that so many of our schools are consistently achieving Adequate Yearly Progress over a number of years is a clear indication of the success of our urban school reform efforts,” said Dr. Beverly L. Hall, Superintendent, Atlanta Public Schools.  “This level of sustained academic performance by our students is proof positive that Atlanta Public Schools’ students are competitive with their counterparts from around the state and the nation in the area of academic achievement.”

Two APS teachers to be surprised with free school supplies on Oct. 6

Two Atlanta Public Schools elementary school teachers have been selected to receive more than $1,000 in classroom supplies as part of the annual “A Day Made Better” program by OfficeMax on Oct. 6.
 
White and Parkside elementary schools teachers were nominated by their principals, and are among more than 1,000 educators at schools across the country selected for the program, which distributes $1 million in school supplies.
 
Local OfficeMax employees will surprise the teachers at 10 a.m. Tuesday, October 6.  News media representatives planning to cover the event should arrive at the schools no later than 9:30 a.m.
 
White Elementary School is located at 1890 Detroit Ave., NW, Atlanta 30314.
 
Parkside Elementary School is located at 685 Mercer St., SE, Atlanta 30312

Nominate your school’s Media Specialist for national award

We’ve always believed that librarians across the country, in some 123,000 libraries, have a major impact on millions of Americans. Here’s an opportunity for the Atlanta Public Schools community to help provide some much-needed, and much-deserved, appreciation for our schools’ media specialists.

You can nominate your school’s media specialist for the Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times “I Love My Librarian Award.” As many as 10 librarians/media specialists will be honored nationally. Each honoree will get $5,000 and will be honored at an awards ceremony hosted by The New York Times this December.

Nominations deadline: Oct. 9.

For more information and nomination form, visit www.ilovelibraries.org/ilovemylibrarian.

Save the date: Read for the Record at Herndon Elementary, Oct. 8

Jumpstart’s Read for the Record is trying to engage more than 1 million children in reading Eric Carle’s classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Therefore, the kindergarten students at Alonzo F. Herndon Elementary have pledged to participate in and be a part of a record-breaking celebration of reading! Each kindergarten class will be read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Literacy Coach Marclette Ellison, then log onto www.readfortherecord.org and post their names as participants. In preparation for this event, the kindergarten teachers and paraprofessionals (Nelcena Holliway, Valerie Johnson, Lisa Miller, Chevela Greenway and Angela Wilder) have placed a “life-size” caterpillar on the kindergarten hall. This event will take place at 9 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 8.

Project GRAD rallies rescheduled for Oct. 15-16

APS, Project GRAD Atlanta and Communities In Schools had planned to jointly host rallies to motivate eighth-graders and ninth-graders about going to college, but the events were washed out by the floods.

“Destination: College” has been rescheduled:

Oct. 15, South Atlanta Educational Complex, 9:45 a.m.
Oct. 16, The New Schools at Carver, 10 a.m.

The events are also designed to encourage ninth-graders from the three Project GRAD high school campuses to sign a covenant pledging their commitment to higher learning.

Bethune Elementary kicks off a month of playground fun for APS and KaBOOM!

What’s up with Atlanta Public Schools and playgrounds in October? It’s going to be an exciting month if Friday morning’s event at Bethune Elementary was any indication. The school partnered with Atlanta Taskforce on Play (ATOP) and KaBOOM! to present students with the unique Imagination Playground in a BOX — a portable playground where kids can pull out parts and create their own playground figures.

(On Saturday, Oct. 3, KaBOOM! partners with Fickett Elementary for a playground build, and again on Oct. 22 with Peyton Forest for another playground.)

The morning was spent with Bethune Elementary Principal RoseMary Hamer and ATOP founder Cynthia Gentry presenting the box to kindergarten students during a morning break. After opening up the huge green box, they allowed children to run wild, pulling out the blue parts and doing whatever they wanted with them — together in groups and separately. The next thing they knew, the students had created imaginary trees, benches and other toys. Read more after the jump …