Will Promise Scholarships help these students?
Recently, the Georgia Department of Education released a list of schools where students qualify for the Georgia Promise Scholarship. (See attached) These schools are considered to be low performing and are rated in the bottom twenty five percent of Georgia Schools. Students are eligible for vouchers worth up to $6,500 per student under the Georgia Promise Scholarship.
The Georgia Promise Scholarship is open to students who reside in a Georgia public school attendance zone that is in the lower 25% of all public schools. See FAQ attached.
The scores were developed by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) which used the average of 2023 and 2024 single CCRPI scores to determine the Promise Scholarship Public School Eligibility List. GOSA used Georgia’s College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) component scores from GADOE (Content Mastery, Progress, Closing the Gaps, reading readiness, and Graduation Rate (high schools only)) to calculate 2023 and 2024 Single Scores. For details on single score calculating procedure see the attached document.
While no Fayette school was on this list, over twenty schools in both Clayton and Henry counties were as well as five each in Coweta and Carroll counties The entire list is attached.
The Coweta schools were four elementary schools and one middle school.
- Arnco-Sargent Elementary School
- Glanton Elementary School
- Jefferson Parkway Elementary School
- Ruth Hill Elementary School
- Smokey Road Middle School
Scholarship (voucher applications open March 1 at https://mygeorgiapromise.org/.
When I first saw this, I was deeply concerned because all of my previous research had indicated that Coweta County schools were “good”. So, I dug in and attached is the analysis that compares the data provided by the Department if Georgia’s Department of Education.
First, I have to mention that I find Georgia’s CCPRI formula to be well meaning but flawed. There is a specific focus not only on content mastery but also, rewards or penalizes for results within “student subgroups “(i.e., demographics). The flaw is best illustrated by Glanton Elementary’s GOSA score of 75.6 which is higher than Georgia’s average elementary score of 74.9, but in the “bottom twenty five percent.”
Digging deeper looking only at “content mastery” which is defined as “whether students are achieving at the level necessary to be prepared for the next grade…” Glanton does worse against the average across Georgia in math 53.75% v 66.85%, English 50.95 v. 65.34, Science 39.75 v. 53.00, and reading at grade level 56.6 v. 69.12.
Now the first easy observation is economics. All five Coweta schools “on the list” are Title I Schools. School is designated “Title I based on forty or more percent of student population comes from a low-income household. This status entitles those students to additional federal funds. Seventy one percent of Georgia’s elementary schools are designated as “Title I schools.”
But the second factor in the economic status is that the students either don’t have the parental support necessary to help the students at home or the parents may lack the skills to help, not the will.
I have written in the past, that my son Jackson attended Trinity Christian in Sharpsburg on a “SB 10 voucher” that was given to him as a special education student. We chose Trinity as they had a program called “skills” where emerging learners got additional support, for an additional fee. When all was said and done, we paid an amount close to the total of the voucher. Thankfully, we were blessed with the resources to do so.
I think as important to his success was that we were both home to help him with his homework and help him study. I truly believe even if the parents choose to spend the money to use a voucher, if the home support is not there, not much can change.
A reasonable person may wonder, if these students are already economically disadvantaged, can the parents afford to supplement the $6,500 voucher with the necessary money to pay for a private education? How many of the almost twenty-two hundred qualifying students can or will take advantage of this Georgia Promise Scholarship?
The number is likely small. Given the relative success of the rest of the Coweta system, the question becomes how can we as a community help?
I contacted Chairman Glover of the Coweta County School System has released the following statement: “The Coweta County Board of Education takes the performance of each of our schools very seriously. The fact that five CCSS schools are on the 2025-26 Georgia Promise Scholarship Public School List is concerning. We know first-hand the wonderful things that are going on in these schools each day and know that the students, teachers, and administrators at these schools are working hard each day to improve the test scores. The CCSS Board of Education will ensure that these schools have the materials, resources and support they need to succeed.”
Now comes the hard part, helping Coweta’s student get the education and achieve the results we all want for them.
