Greene Co. schools to be segregated by sex

Starting next fall, public school students in Greene County will learn in single-sex classrooms. Educators in the rural east Georgia school district hope the move will improve test scores and student behavior. One charter school in the district will be exempt from the change. The county is believed to be the first school district in the U.S. to entirely convert to single-sex education.

Georgia School Closings

The following public schools are closed due to inclement weather in North Georgia:

Banks County Schools
Carroll County Schools, 12-month staff report
Cherokee County Schools
Dawson County Schools
Fannin County Schools
Forsyth County Schools
Franklin County Schools
Gilmer County Schools
Habersham County Schools, 12-month staff report
Hall County Schools
Haralson County Schools
Hart County Schools
Lumpkin County Schools
Pickens County Schools
Rabun County Schools
Stephens County Schools, 12-month staff report
Towns County Schools
Union County Schools
White County Schools

Report card on Georgia schools

A new report on Georgia schools in Education Week gives the state high marks for its curriculum standards, testing program and school accountability efforts. However, authors of the study say those policies are not achieving their potential. Georgia student performance on national exams as well as the state’s graduation rate received the lowest grades. Although the state’s graduation rate has been improving, Georgia still ranks 49th in the country for high school graduation rate.

Georgia's low-income student population growing

The majority of Georgia’s public school students are considered low-income. That from a report released today by an Atlanta-based education think tank. Fifty-two percent of Georgia public school students qualify for free or reduced-cost school meals. That is 13 points higher than the national average. The report calls the growing number of low income students a “crisis of the first order of magnitude.”

Many schools fall short of No Child Left Behind standards

The number of troubled public schools not making enough progress as required by the No Child Left Behind act is growing. But overall, more schools have passed the requirements.

About 81 percent of the state's public schools made adequate yearly progress, which is an improvement from last year's 79 percent. But many schools are failing to meet that standard for two years in a row, and the number of them has risen after a drop last year.

Over 320 schools are now on the state's "needs improvement" list. Seventy percent of them did not meet the standards in English. Only 39 percent have met the standards in Math. Officials say that's why Math must get more focus in Georgia these days.

In order to get off the "needs improvement" list, these schools have to meet the federal standards for two years straight. They often offer extra tutoring and student transfers to better schools.