A local Dalton school, Morris Innovative High School, is among more than 90 of Georgia's lowest-performing schools, according to a report Monday from the Georgia Department of Education.
Under the most recent federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, states are required to report a list of Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) and Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) schools to the federal government and publicly each year.
This is the first year targeted support schools have been released. Walker County's Rossville Elementary School is one of 22 such schools across the state. These schools are categorized based on chronic under-performance and/or low performance of certain subgroups such as black and Hispanic students, English language learners, students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students.
Schools on the comprehensive support list, including Morris Innovative High, receive even more substantial support from the local district and the Georgia Department of Education, according to a news release.
Morris Innovative High made the list because it has at least one group of students performing in the bottom 5 percent of the state and because the school's graduation rate is less than 67 percent.
Phoenix High in Whitfield County made the list for the same reasons as Morris, and Chattooga Academy in Chattooga County also made the list because of its low graduation rate.
Low performance of Rossville Elementary's black students resulted in the school making the list.
Georgia's overall school improvement strategy has a four-tiered approach, including: Tier 1, which encompasses all schools; Tier 2, which is targeted schools; Tier 3, which is comprehensive support schools; and Tier 4, which is made up of the state's lowest-performing schools.