High Falls Georgia

Several North Fulton Schools Need Improvement in Reading and Math

Sandy Springs Charter Middle School, Lake Forest Elementary and Ridgeview Charter are among 32 Fulton County schools that did not make Adequate Yearly Progress.

An AYP report was released on Thursday by the Georgia Department of Education. The report indicates how students performed on standardized tests.

AYP is a part of the No Child Left Behind Act that addresses elementary and secondary education. According to the law every child must be proficient in math and reading by 2014. 

Schools that do not meet AYP goals for two or more years are identified as “Needs Improvement.”  That status could allow parents to transfer their children to other schools.

North Springs Charter High School met the AYP goals for the 2010-2011 year but it did not meet standards in the 2009-2010 school year. Because it must satisfy the goals for two consecutive years, the school is still in “Needs Improvement” status.

Other North Fulton schools that did not meet AYP goals include Roswell High School, Centennial High, Holcomb Bridge Middle, Haynes Bridge Middle and Alpharetta High School.

Still, 68.6 percent of Fulton schools achieved Adequate Yearly Progress.

“This report helps our schools see exactly where to focus their efforts,” said Dr. Robert Avossa, Fulton County Schools superintendent, in a statement. “We will examine the data and see how it might be used to improve our instructional approach. Overall, this is an opportunity for us to find ways to help all students be more successful.”

Separately, Fulton County Schools plans to take extra precautions in testing procedures given the Atlanta Public School scandal. In Fulton County, accountability for testing security and execution at the individual school level falls under the direction of the assistant principal. As the testing coordinators, assistant principals attend group training sessions and are tasked with then ensuring the faculty and staff at their local school is well-versed in proper testing procedures. Additional online trainings are held throughout the year to apprise testing coordinators as needed.

To further ensure proper testing procedures are followed, every Fulton County teacher is asked to sign a security agreement. According to Susan Hale, spokesperson for Fulton County School, the state doesn’t require that teachers sign such an agreement.

“It’s a reminder to yourself just how serious this is,” she said.

CrusherChronicles » Blog Archive » High Falls State Park, Georgia

High Falls State Park, Georgia

Because of my slow nature, I’ve been suspended from writing for my own blog by Lady CurbCrusher. We recently made a trip to North Georgia and on the way stayed at High Falls State Park near Forsyth.

We left Orlando around 9 am heading to somewhere in GA for the night. We’re on our way to the Blue Ridge Mountains for a week’s stay at Unicoi State Park near Helen .

Most of the trip will be up I-75, a trip we’ve made many times so really nothing new to see. I did not get my state line picture in GA because the sign was blown down along the highway. We stopped at the GA welcome station to eat lunch and pick up info on the places we were staying near. Then we hit the road again.

CurbCrusher’s partner at work told him about this place called Lane’s Peaches that we needed to check out. So just after Perry, in Peach County, at exit 142 we got off and went west for 5 miles to find it. Glad we did -they do have the best peach ice cream I’ve ever tasted. TeenCurbCrusher ordered that and I had the peach cobbler. I ordered a small and it was enough to save for dessert after dinner later. CC ordered a boring pecan pie slice, but he did say it was good as well. They have a large warehouse full of everything to do with peaches:jams, jellies, ciders, fresh peaches, and various household novelties. There is also a production line you can self tour that shows how they bring the peaches in from the orchards and pack them to ship all over.

After our refreshing repast, I gave a call to the KOA in Forsyth and the state park in High Falls to see if they had sites available and they both did. We aimed for the state park because CC loves waterfalls and this one had one that was 100 ft high.

We arrived at 5 pm, just after the office closed, so we were instructed to find a spot, park and the host would be by to collect our money. Well daylight was burning so we left a note for the host that we would be back later and then we left to find the waterfall. Since we would only be here one night we had to check everything out as soon as we could. We drove up to a parking area near the front of the camping area and got out to discover the old powerhouse that was built along the river. This was where they generated power for the area. The building was made of brick but there was nothing left inside, just the walls holding it up. We finished looking around there and then headed up to the parking area where we could access the waterfall. We found a trail to follow and with a short walk could see the waterfall. The trail led down to a platform for better viewing but we could see people actually on the rocks and in the water so we looked for a path to get us down there. We found a really steep one but continued on and soon we were walking on the rocks in the river.

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