From the Desk of Mr. York

NCLB Choice

I hope you and your child are looking forward to the upcoming 2009-2010 school year. Recently, the media reported the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) status of our school and all other schools in the district. AYP is one of the cornerstones of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and is a measure of year-to-year student achievement on statewide assessments. Specifically, schools must make AYP on several criteria including mastery of academic standards in Mathematics and English/Language Arts on the Criterion Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT); participation in the CRCT; and attendance. We are excited to announce that Griffin Middle School met AYP goals for 2008-2009 in all areas. Our teachers and staff members worked very hard to meet the needs of all students and their work resulted in our school making AYP.

Until our school makes AYP for two consecutive years and is removed from the list of schools that must offer choice under NCLB, we will continue to be designated as a school “in need of improvement”. This means we are required to offer you the option of transferring your student to another Cobb school for the 2009-2010 school year. If you choose to request a transfer for your child under NCLB, you may choose between Awtrey and McCleskey Middle Schools. If you are interested in obtaining additional information regarding the public school choice provisions under NCLB, Griffin Middle School will host two NCLB Parent Information meetings on Tuesday, July 28. One will be held at 9:30 AM and one at 6:30 PM.

More information can be found in the parent letter recently sent home.  To download a copy, click here.

Griffin Makes AYP

 

Georgia Department of Education data released today shows Griffin Middle School made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under Federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) guidelines for the 2008 – 2009 school year. This is the first time that Griffin has made AYP since the inception of NCLB. Griffin could come off the Needs Improvement list if they make AYP again in 2010.

 The 2008 - 2009 school year brought two major changes to Griffin. The first was the adoption of the America's Choice model for instruction and the second was becoming a State Directed school. Both of these changes brought additional support to a staff that was already working toward improving student achievement. Over the past several years, Griffin had seen steady growth in most, but not all, NCLB sub-groups. As a result, Griffin missed achieving the Federal AYP mark by only one student in 2008. This year, however, Griffin made AYP in all sub-groups increasing student achievement by as much 19.3%.

With an increased emphasis on standards based instruction, teachers at Griffin have seen a vast improvement in the quality of student work. Collaboration among teachers has continued to increase. Teachers increasingly focus on the level of rigor needed for students to understand and apply the standards in all grades and in all content areas.

Griffin’s Principal, Darryl York, attributes the success of Griffin to everyone working in collaboration to put the ‘pieces of the puzzle’ together. “When we all work together (parents, teachers, students, and community members), the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together and we accomplish more.”

While Griffin has made marked improvement over the past few years, the goal is to continue to see the levels of student achievement grow. Not only has Griffin met the requirements for AYP but the number of students exceed the standards has also grown. Great thing are happening and continue to happen at Griffin.

School Choice - What Parents Really Need to Know

Cobb County parents are faced with several choices when deciding which school to send their children to.  For parents in the Griffin community however, the choice is easy.  By far Griffin is the best choice.

I recently read an article in the AJC concerning a parent who was upset that he could not send his daughter to a different high school.  He felt that the choice high school had a far better cheerleading squad.  Frankly I was appalled. Parents wanting to take advantage of Georgia HB251 for academic reasons is one thing; but athletics - please.  I would hope this was not the intent of HB251.

You may be asking - How does school choice impact Griffin?

Over the past few years Griffin has been required to offer school choice under the Federal 'No Child Left Behind' (NCLB) program.  As a result we have seen a small number of families opt to send their children to other middle schools.  Parents have elected to put their children on a bus for 45 to 60 minutes rides to schools on the other side of the county.  Almost every one of these families have sent their children to other schools without ever visiting Griffin.  It is unfortunate that the all-or-nothing approach of NCLB has placed Griffin on the 'Needs Improvement' list.  It is even more unfortunate that some parents don't fully understand the reason Griffin is on the list.

However, things are changing.  Last year (2008) Griffin missed making Annual Yearly Progress (AYP), the measurement used by NCLB, by only one student.  This year, Griffin made AYP for the first time since the inception of NCLB.  As a matter of fact, Griffin was the only middle or high school in the Smyrna area to make AYP without using summer school re-take test scores.  Griffin has made tremendous gains in student achievement over the past three years and it shows.  While we must still offer NCLB choice, it is my hope that parents will take time to investigate Griffin and find out what truly great things are happening here.

Based on the guidelines for HB251, Griffin will not be accepting transfers from other schools this year.  Our goal is to continue to provide a quality education for those students in our community.  Griffin is like a grand puzzle.  As we continue putting all the pieces together, Teachers, Students, Parents, and Community, we will see even greater growth in student achievement.

Thank you to all who have stayed with Griffin and been a part of the puzzle.  For those who have thought of exercising 'choice' let me tell you that Griffin is your best choice.  Come join our family and see what great things are happening at Griffin.

Budget Cuts

As you may have read over the weekend, the Cobb County School District has announced "spending restrictions" for all schools.  These restrictions have frozen approximately $50,000 allocated to Griffin for the 2008 - 2009 school year.  While limited access to these funds may be available use of any county funding will be limited to "essential instructional materials."

The Griffin staff has already begun taking steps to ensure that these cuts will have as little impact to daily instruction as possible.  We will be working over the next week to develop a plan that will allow us to continue to offer quality instructional programs to all our students.  As more information is available we will post that information on Griffin's web site.

As always, your child's educational progress is our top priority. 

Half Time

As we come to the end of our first semester as a state directed school and   working with the America's Choice model I look around and see exciting things happening at Griffin.  Teachers are working together in collaborative teams more than ever before.  Administrators are more involved as instructional leaders and individual student data is being used to drive instruction.  Griffin is moving from being a 'Needs Improvement' school to being a model school in multiple areas.

 

Over the next few months we will continue to expand the use of the America's Choice model.  We will also be holding our first ever Student Led Conferences.  I look forward to second semester and seeing the continued growth of Griffin.

As always I invite you to visit and see the great things that are happening.  Our PTSA continues to host parent tours on the second Tuesday of every month at 10:00 a.m and I encourage you to stop by and participate in one of those.