A $6 million school improvement grant would help Ridgeland High School move forward in student achievement and graduation rates, officials said.
Nancy Lance, director of curriculum, instruction and professional learning in Walker County Schools, said today is the deadline to apply for the grant. Awards will be announced in May.
“It’s possibly $2 million a year for three years,” Ms. Lance said.
School officials said Ridgeland qualifies because it is classed as a “persistently low-achieving school” according to Georgia education standards. It is a Title I school in “needs improvement” status under No Child Left Behind federal guidelines, school officials said.
Ridgeland failed to make adequate yearly progress in test scores for three consecutive years, and its graduation rate averaged less than 60 percent over three years.
Ridgeland posted a 54 percent graduation rate in 2006 and 57.5 percent in 2007-08. Rates hit 64.7 percent in 2008-09
“We’ve pulled our graduation rate up almost 10 percent in the past three years,” Ms. Lance said, but the improvement still doesn’t satisfy average yearly progress standards.
In November, Walker school officials recognized Ridgeland for having the second-highest average SAT score in the region, for ranking eighth in the state for improvement on the state U.S. history end-of-course test and for putting up eight of the county’s 10 student nominees to Gov. Sonny Perdue’s honors program, records show.
If awarded, “this grant would certainly give us some resources to continue the direction we’re going,” principal Robert Smith said.
The money mostly would be used to improve the school’s graduation rate, but also could be used for technology, staff development, remedial instruction and parent participation, Mr. Smith said.
“We’re hoping to offer a lot more remediation and enrichment opportunities,” he said.
CLASS NOTES
Name: Ridgeland High School
Principal: Robert Smith
Students: 1,283
Teachers: 116
Address: 2478 Happy Valley Road, Rossville
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