National Blue Ribbon School

Fulton County School System recommends non-renewal of charter, leaving families and school administration with little notice and uncertainty

EAST POINT, GEORGIA, USA, February 6, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Rise Schools, a 2018 Governor’s Red Ribbon Award recipient and a 2020 Georgia Charter School of the Year finalist, has recently been recommended for non-charter renewal by its authorizer, the Fulton County School System.

Of the ten charter schools within the Fulton County School System, both RISE Grammar and RISE Prep account for over 808 students, the largest charter school within South Fulton. In 2019, the last year in which Milestones exams were given for the purpose of accountability, RISE outperformed the vast majority of its comparison schools. During the last three years, it has been much harder to fairly evaluate schools. GaDOE has been clear that standardized test data during COVID-19 should not be used to rate schools. The state sought a waiver/ modification from the U.S. Education Department in 2020, 2021, and 2022—corresponding with all three years of RISE’s current charter.

Although Milestones testing has resumed, GaDOE has stressed that recent test data from the pandemic should only be used to “establish a new baseline,” not to compare schools. As GaDOE explained, “We feel very strongly that using any of these data for improvement is appropriate; using them to disparage or label a school or district is not.”

To be clear, there is work to be done. With the worst of the pandemic hopefully behind us, we are focused on meeting all of our scholars’ academic needs. We have identified Special Education as an area where we must improve, and we appreciate FCS’s collaboration in this effort, which is already underway. We are also encouraged by RISE Grammar’s iReady data from this year, which shows significant improvement from September 2022 to December 2022.

As we do this work, we ask that the Fulton County Schools Board Members give us a fair chance at the final vote scheduled on February 23, 2023, at 6:00 PM at the South Learning Center, 4025 Flat Shoals Road, Union City, Georgia 30291. While we hope that we are given a full renewal, at a minimum we are requesting one additional year, so that our academic performance can be compared with our 2021-22 data, which has served as a baseline for our instructional priorities.

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About Rise Prep and Grammar
Rise Schools, consisting of both Rise Prep and Rise Grammar, collectively, is the largest charter school within the South Fulton School area. We strive to maintain a balance between competition and compassion, providing rigorous and holistic education services, developing the minds and character of scholars to be catalysts for social change.

Shaheen Solomon
RISE Preparatory Charter School Inc
+1 678-687-8405
email us here
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