Early & Ongoing Assessment & Intervention=Dropout Prevention Benjamin Franklin said, An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

It is imperative that ongoing assessment, interventions, and parent notification occur if we are to prevent student failure, and ultimately student dropout. As soon as a student is identified as struggling and/or not passing, we need to sound the fire alarm. A students failure is often an uncontrollable wild fire that will spread to unrelated areas if the adults dont swiftly get involved. We must continue to sound the fire alarm throughout our buildings until steps are taken to intervene on behalf of the student. The sounding of the alarm signals real trouble---each resulting response will be different, depending on the needs of the impacted student. When there is a wild fire, firefighters show up to battle the fire. Once they get the fire under control, some return to the station, while the remaining team continues work to extinguish the fire. Similarly, our students need all of our firefighters supporting them until their problem is adequately addressed or extinguished. Identifying and responding to student deficiencies early will positively impact our students who may become frustrated and make the decision to dropout. To learn more about
DROPOUT prevention, visit the http://www.dropoutprevention.org/ NDPC at

College and Career Ready Performance Index

The Georgia Department of Education released the state College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) in mid-April. The released scores represent data for the 2012 & 2013 school years. In an effort to make the CCRPI more rigorous, the state adjusted both the measures and the calculations of the 2013 CCRPI thereby rendering a comparison between the 2012 and 2013 CCRPI scores impossible. For example, one of the indicators in the 2012 CCRPI for both elementary and middle schools was the percent of students in grade five or eight passing at least four courses in the core content areas (English, math, science, and social studies). In 2013, the indicator changed to read the percent of students in grade five or eight passing at least four courses in core content areas (ELA, mathematics, science, social studies) and scoring at Meets or Exceeds on all CRCT and required EOCTs. The change to this indicator alone impacted the ability to compare year to year. The myriad of changes were not made known to district or school staff until well into the 2013-2014 school year, and the adjustments applied retroactively to the 2012-2013 school year data. In an effort to enable a comparison, the Georgia Department of Education applied the new 2012-2013 indicators and calculations to the 2011-2012 final data. Comparing the new 2012-2013 CCRPI scores to the old 2011-2012 CCRPI would not have been possible (although many people would have done it anyway), so the changes resulted in a re-calculated 2012 score. The re-calculated score reflects the rigor associated with the 2013 adjustments. The following revisions were made to the 2013 CCRPI: ELEMENTARY: Percent of students in Grade 5 passing at least 5 courses in core content areas (ELA, reading, mathematics, science, social studies) and scoring at Meets or Exceeds on all CRCT (Change: Previous version did not include reading & passing ALL CRCTs) MIDDLE: Percent of students completing 2 or more state defined career related assessments/inventories and a state defined Individual Graduation Plan by the end of grade 8 (Change:Previous CCRPI had these listed separately now they are combined) Percent of students in grade eight passing at least four courses in core content areas (ELA, mathematics, science, social studies) and scoring at Meets or Exceeds on all CRCTs and required EOCTs (Change: Previous version did not include passing all CRCTs and required EOCTs ) HIGH: Coordinate Algebra, Calculations for Graduation Rate, World Language (Change: Coordinate Algebra is a new EOCT, 4 year graduation rate: weight 2/3--5 year graduation rate 1/3, removed World Language and adding it back for 2013-2014)

SUMMARY OF CALCULATION-CHANGES Area

Achievement Progress Achievement Gap (Closure)

2012
70 Points 15 Points
Minimum was 1

2013
60 Points 25 Points 15 Points, Minimum
now ZERO

15 Points,

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CCRPI By The Numbers

NCSS CCRPI Comparison 2012 Recalculated District overall East N ew ton Fairv iew Flint H ill H eard Mix on Liv e Oak Liv ingston Mansfield Middle Ridge N C TS @ Ficquett Oak H ill Porterdale Rocky Plains South Salem West N ew ton Elementary T OT AL Middle C lements C ousins Indian C reek Liberty N C TS @ Ficquett Veterans Middle T otal High Eastside N ew ton Alcov y High School T otal 80.2 78.4 75.6 78.6 81.1 69.8 69.1 69.4 69.5 64.4 71.2 74.9 82 72.1 70.1 83.8 75.4 74.6 77.2 99.6 66.6 76 73.4 Elementary 79.7 57.2 61.4 83.6 77.4 67.8 83.4 70.5 89.8 70.2 52 71.2 59 73.4 71.5 85.4 74.6 69.1 74.3 76.9 69.9 84.8 71.8 93.8 72.7 71.4 87.8 75.2 73.6 77.5 2013 as reported 4/16/14 75.2

Newton County Theme School

The Theme School has earned the distinction of being identified as the highest performing middle school in the state as measured by the CCRPI. We are proud of the students, parents, staff, and school leaders and congratulate them for this accomplishment! GREAT JOB Keep up the excellent work!

Governors Honors
Six students representing Eastside & Newton High Schools will be attending a four week instructional program at Valdosta State University. These students have been named as winners of the prestigious Governors Honors Program for outstanding sophomores and juniors. We are pleased to announce the following students will be attending the summer program! This is quite an accomplishment! Eastside High School Newton High School
Anna Davis-Latin Mathew Dean-Music Voice Kaylah Kennedy-Latin Ian Cole-Music Voice Hezekiah Rogers-Music Brittany Webb-Math

Eastside High School

Eastside High Schools CCRPI score represents the hard work and dedication of the students, parents, staff, and school leaders. When considering school systems that border Newton County (Henry, Rockdale, Walton, Jasper, Butts, Social Circle City, Morgan), Eastside posted the second highest CCRPI score of all the high schools in each system---following only Union Grove High School in Henry County. Additionally, according to the Similar Schools Index which identifies high schools that are similar in makeup, Eastsides CCRPI score of 81.1 places the school 1st out of 17 schools identified as similar. Congratulations to the students, parents, staff, and school leaders! We are proud of you all! GREAT JOB!

Ann Marie Nyokore & Craig Thomas from Newton High School have been named alternates for the summer program.

Gates Millenium Scholars

The Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) Program, funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was established in 1999 to provide outstanding African American, American Indian/Alaska Native*, Asian Pacific Islander American**, and Hispanic American students with an opportunity to complete an undergraduate college education in any discipline area of interest. Continuing GMSs may request funding for a graduate degree program in one of the following discipline areas: computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health or science. The GMS Program selects 1,000 talented students each year to receive a goodthrough-graduation scholarship to use at any college or university of their choice. Only students who have a GPA of 3.3 or higher are eligible to apply. We are happy to announce that the following students have been selected to receive the Gates Millenium Scholarship:

THANK YOU
While our data does not reflect our ultimate destination, it does reflect GREAT progress on our journey. You have worked hard to ensure our students are increasingly more successful, and our students are improving their performance! Keep focused and stay the course-we are headed in the right direction! We are showing steady progress, and as long as we are willing to face our brutal facts and do something about them, we will continue to improve.

Graduation Information
All graduations will take place at Springfield Baptist Church located at 1877 Iris Dr. SE, Conyers, GA 30013 Alcovy High School-Friday, May 23 at 8:00 PM Newton High School-Saturday, May 24 at 9:00 AM Eastside High School-Saturday, May 24 at 3:00 PM

Alcovy High School Leslie Ochei Newton High School Gloria Alafe Brandon Hayden Eboni Wimbley
This is an AWESOME accomplishment!!

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TWITTER HIGHLIGHTS

The Newton County School System's Strategic Plan can be found at the link below. Take the time to review the plan!
http://www.newtoncountyschools.org/Portals/0/newtoncounty/main/documents/strategic%20plan/NCSS%20Strategic%20Plan.pdf

Students, teachers, and our community working to ensure our students are the beneficiaries of a high quality, relevant, engaging education. Check out Twitter- See for yourself! #NCSSBeTheBest

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