The Georgia Department of Education on Tuesday released the 2023-2024 lists of schools identified for additional support, as required by federal law, along with the list of 86 schools which made the improvements needed in one year to exit identified status.
The Evans County Charter School System landed three of its four schools on the list. All three schools were placed on the list for performing in the bottom 5% as compared to other schools in the state.
Claxton Elementary School, Claxton Middle School, and the Second Chance Academy were all placed on the list this year.
Under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states are required to identify schools in need of additional support – in Georgia, these designations are referred to as Comprehensive Support & Improvement (CSI) and Targeted Support & Improvement (TSI).
As part of the designation, states are federally required to identify their lowest-performing 5% of Title I schools, meaning there will always be identified schools even as performance statewide increases. CSI and TSI schools receive additional support to improve the educational outcomes of their students.
This year, 107 schools were identified for Comprehensive Support & Improvement and 78 schools were identified for Targeted Support & Improvement or Additional Targeted Support & Improvement (ATSI). Eighty-six schools made the improvements necessary to exit CSI or TSI support.
Additionally, four schools or grade levels initially identified for CSI or TSI support have since closed. These schools are listed in the Exit List, but are not included in the totals above.
“One of our most important responsibilities as the state’s educational agency is to help every school improve – so that they can provide the best possible education for the children they serve,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said. “The purpose is not to label schools but to partner with them to increase outcomes and opportunities for their students – as we have with the 86 schools that made the improvements to exit state support this year.”
Georgia has an updated process to identify CSI and TSI schools based on an amendment to its state Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan approved by the U.S. Department of Education in 2023. The identification criteria for each designation are described below.
Schools Identified for CSI Support
Georgia uses a staged identification process to identify CSI schools in three categories:
- The lowest-performing 5% of all Title I schools
- All high schools with a graduation rate at or below 67%
- All schools identified for Additional Targeted Support & Improvement (ATSI) for the same student group(s) for six years.
The complete list is available below:
