Bibb County Schools Fail To Meet Federal Requirements For Academic Performance

The state released Adequate Yearly Progress numbers for schools across Georgia, and some Bibb County schools aren’t making the grade.

It’s a scarlet letter on the Bibb County School record. For the 2010-2011 school year, 24 of the 39 schools in the county aren’t meeting federal standards. In fact, not a single high school in Bibb County made the grade. In order to meet state requirements, 95% of schools must progress in academic performance, Dr. Romain Dallemand says the standard needs to be met.

That’s the minimum standard,” Dallemand said. “And we want for our students to excel and to achieve at high levels.”

12 of the 24 elementary schools and 5 middle schools also didn’t make AYP. School board members say they need to make goals that can be met on a short term basis, in order to reach the long term goal of significant improvement.

“Now we need to begin the dialogue of drastic change so that we can have significant increases year to year,” said Tommy Barnes of the Bibb County Board of Education. “They won’t happen the first year, but we’re looking at in three to four years we need to really have this paradigm completely shifted to where the majority of our schools make AYP.”

Members of the board say they plan to meet with students, teachers, parents and administrators to address the issue, so that schools don’t keep falling behind.

“This coming September we’re going to bring our staff together so that we can develop a strategic plan that will be our framework and our guide as to how we’re going to transform our schools,” Dallemand said.

Dallemand did not specify what he has in mind for the school district. He says the change will need to come from within, in order to achieve the desired results.

Bibb County’s neighbor Houston county fared significantly better in the
AYP report. Only 7 of the 37 schools didn’t meet federal requirements.
And across the state, 63 percent of schools made AYP. That number is down from 71 percent in 2010.