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Word is that the Georgia Traditions building has had its wrist slapped by the city for not containing all of the styrofoam bits
coming off the material that will go underneath its stucco. Reports are that the snowfall's not quite as bad as it was at the
Gameday building four years ago. but some styro-snowflakes are certainly to be found in the gutters and the cracks in the
sidewalk on East Broad Street.
Local Schools
How Do You Grade ’Em?
Are Clarke County's public schools up to
snuff? The system has a mixed reputation. Many
parents defend the dedication of its teachers,
while local Realtors reportedly steer home-buy
ers toward counties with "better" schools. Tim
Johnson, director of Communities in Schools
of Athens, has helped organize some of the
more innovative programs in the Clarke County
schools. He works with—but not for—the school
district, and sees both sides of the issue.
"I think they are fantastic, and I think they're
terrible," Johnson says. His own children, he
says, "got a better education here than they
would have in Oconee, for example.... But school
districts all over the country are dysfunctional,
so they could certainly be a lot better than
they are." Schools haven’t changed with the
times, Johnson believes.
"Everything is so dif
ferent now than it was
30 or 40 years ago, but
schools are very much
the same, where you
come sit in rows and
listen to somebody up
front talk to you....
There's a lot of research that there are ways that
work better than that to engage the students."
Classic City High School: A Performance Learning
Center—Athens' non-traditional high school—is
based on such research, he points out. "They
teach traditional subjects but they do it in a
very different way." No classroom there has more
than 15 students and each works at his or her
own speed and ability. The result: an average
21-point grade improvement and fewer discipline
problems. Johnson also thinks Clarke County's
pre-kindergarten programs are a strength of the
school system. "They really are outstanding in
those areas," he says.
If you look at the web-published ratings of
all Georgia public schools based on the criteria
of the federal "No Child Left Behind" program,
eight of Clarke county's schools fall short. Those
ratings are based on students' performance on
standardized tests, and they say that the city of
Commerce's schools. Jackson County's schools,
and Oconee County's schools—popular alterna
tive destinations for area children—fully meet
the federal requirements. The ratings show
schools as either making "adequate yearly prog
ress" or "needing improvement" if they are going
to keep getting federal money under the vol
untary program. Students in schools that "need
improvement" are allowed to transfer to another
school if one is available. Among surrounding
counties, Oglethorpe, Madison and Barrow coun
ties are shown to have shortcomings as well.
But what do those ratings really mean? Dr.
Denise Mewborn, head of science and math
teaching at UGA's School of Education, told
Flagpole she thinks they are pretty arbitrary.
"There's some stringency in 'No Child Left Behind'
that leads to bad results that aren't necessarily
fair," says Mewborn, who also serves on Clarke
County's school board.
The ratings are based
on test scores in certain
grades, plus scores of
certain narrow categories
of students as defined
by race, income, dis
ability and unfamiliarity
with English; every one
of these subgroups of students must meet the
standards or the school or the system will fail.
Smaller school systems or those with a less-di
verse student body—like Oconee County's—have
an advantage: if there are fewer than 40 students
in one of the categories, then that category can't
count against school system. A proposal now
in Congress would improve the ratings system,
Mewborn says.
"I think parents should look at [the rat
ings], but I also think they ought to go visit the
schools and see what's really going on there," she
says. "As I understand it, Clarke Central this year
did not make 'adequate yearly progress.' But I
think if you went to Clarke Central, and you talk
ed to the teachers and you talked to the students
and you looked at the extracurricular activities
“I think parents should look at
[the ratings], but I also think they
ought to go visit the schools and
see what’s really going on there.”
-RM Me..
ACC ANIMAL CONTROL
45 Beaverdam Rd. • 706-613-3540
Tiny black
white fluffy
babe needs
someluv.
This was the first photo I
took of the happy but shy
red chow mix below - and
the last Afterwards he kept
his face pointed away from
the camera, no matter
where I stood. Petite, smart,
and acts housetrained.
This sweet Boxer mix got glowing
reviews from staff and part of her
story is that she was homeless, fed
by neighborhood children. She is
a quiet, careful girl who wants at
all times to do trie right thing - and
she LOVES (gently) children. VERY
deserving, sensitivejust plain good.
'Mat a mug! Easygoing
American Bulldog is a
mellow gentleman - great
on a leasn, never jumps up
(nice because he weighs in
at about 80 lbs.). Cool dog.
Friendly Bassett mix is
a handsome black and
tan lowrider with a
personality,
walk? Him,
too. Wanna cuddle?
Him, too.
24196
24204
and you looked at the rigor of the curriculum, I
think a lot of parents would be perfectly happy
to send their children to Clarke Central."
But U.S. schools do need improvement,
Mewborn says. "By most any international
standard or test you want to look at, the U.S.
generally ranks with Third-World countries. We're
behind virtually all other industrialized nations."
Partly, she says, that might be because educa
tion is compulsory here, while in some countries,
disinterested students can choose to drop out
and won't get tested. And some nations only test
those students who are on a college-bound track.
"It's really hard to compare apples to apples in
these international comparisons," she says, but
"there's pretty incontrovertible evidence that
we're behind."
Mewborn adds, "I think there's a lot of un
evenness in teacher quality." Teachers at smaller
education schools don't get as specialized train
ing as those at, say, UGA, for instance. And while
working teachers must update their training
periodically, the update courses aren't always
geared to what they're actually teaching in the
classroom, she says. "One of the complaints
that I hear from teachers—and particularly high
school teachers—is that the staff development
that they receive is too general," she says. But "I
think that's changing in Georgia right now."
What about classroom discipline? "There's cer
tainly been an erosion, I think, of the value that
some families place on education... I think that
there is a tendency now of parents to question,
'Why arc you accusing my child of this? 7 rather
than supporting the teacher," Mewborn says. And
teachers say they spend more time dealing with .
disruptive students than 20 years ago, she says.
"I think our society has changed. I think kids are
just different than they used to be. They watch
ELECTION RESULTS
So you want the numbers? Here are the
unofficial returns available at press time
for the 10th Congressional District special
election:
Jim Whitehead (R) 23,570-43.5%
. Dr. Paul Broun, Jr. (R) 11,203—20.7*
James Harlow (0) 11,016-20.3%
Denise Freeman (D) 2,574—4.7%
Evfta Pasdtatt (0) 1,790—3.3%
BiU Greene (R) 1,640—3.0%
Nate Pulliam (R) 926—1.7%
< Dr. Jim Sendelbech (Lib) 725-1.3%
Erik Underwood (R) 394—0.7%
Herb Hyers (R) 368—0.7% ;
:
more television, they play more video games,
they play outside less—they hardly even walk
to the bus stop anymore." In Clarke County, el
ementary school students get recess periods, but
middle and high school students don't, school
district spokesman Mike Wooten says. Required
courses make it "difficult to schedule anything
else during the school day," he says—unless
the 180-day school year were to be extended, or
school days lengthened.
In some countries (like Japan) where students
perform very well on tests, a longer school year
means that those students may have attended
the equivalent of three or four extra years of
school by the time they graduate, Wooten says.
But he rejects the view that teachers are no lon
ger allowed to discipline students. "That's a very
simplistic way of looking at things. Teachers do
have the ability to discipline students," he says.
And in the worst cases, students can be expelled
or placed temporarily in alternative schools,
Wooten notes.
School board meetings (held at 240 Mitchell
Bridge Rd. on the second Thursday of each
month at 6:30 p.m.) are not generally well-at
tended, says Johnson. "Meeting to meeting, if
there's not a big controversy on, it's unusual to
see more than two parents there." And while the
board meetings are recorded (and played back
after the fact on cable Channel 16), the sound
is not clear. "I wish they would televise them
live," he says. The county government has of
fered to let the board use the television facilities
at City Hall, he adds, saying, "Maybe the board
really doesn't want to be televised." Johnson
also thinks that "our board, like many boards of
education, has fallen short in terms of looking at
the long-term vision."
Citizens groups (like the Community Tree
Council, or, more recently, a citizens subcom
mittee working to update the county's land-use
plan) sometimes complain that the school sys
tem-operating independently of other areas of
county government—doesn't consult with them
when school buildings are being modified, or new
ones planned. Responds Wooten: "I don't know
where a lot of this stuff comes from. It does us
absolutely no good not to cooperate with people,
and we cooperate with any number of groups
and any number of departments in Athens-Clarke
County on a daily basis.... As a citizen, I'm far
more frustrated by the clear-cutting of land to
build apartments. I mean, it's not like we're
building schools left and right in Clarke County."
He suggests, though, that citizens who have is
sues about school facilities should contact the
school district's SPLOST director, Ted Gilbert, at
school district offices, 706-546-7721.
John Huie jphuie@athens.nel
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