Decatur Schools Get Top Scores in State Rankings
Decatur Metro | August 19, 2015 | 8:55 amSchools back in session and Niche.com just recently released its 2015 rankings for K-12 schools around the country.
Decatur City Schools received high marks in multiple categories. Here’s a sampling. Get the full results HERE.
- “Best Outcomes” – Decatur ranked #1 in the entire state of Georgia and 315th in the country.
- “Best Facilities” – Decatur ranked #1 in the state and 146th in the country.
- “Best Academics” – Decatur ranked #2 in the state behind Forsyth County Schools and 555th in the country.
- “Best Places to Teach” – Decatur ranks #2 behind only Buford County Schools and 726th in the country.
- “Best Public School Teachers” – Decatur ranks #3 in the state of Georgia for “Best Public School Teachers”, behind only Oconee and Forsyth County Schools. Nationally, the city’s teachers ranked #310.
Decatur also ranked 3rd in Extracurriculars, 5th in “Safest School District”, 7th in “Best Administration”, 9th in “Sports Programs”, 19th in “Most Diverse School Districts”, and 24th in “Best Food” in the state.
If you’re wondering about methodology, you can find a link to it on all the various ranking pages. For example, here’s a link to the “Best Outcomes” methodology.
wow.. excellent work. hope they are still top when my currently 2 and 4 old will attend.
Decatur has been known for excellent schools..
Yikes. What does it say about academics in Georgia school systems that Decatur is ranked 2nd in the state, yet 555th in the country? It seems Decatur is one of the biggest fish in a very shallow pond.
Perspective.
CSD places 555th out of 7,211 school districts. That means it’s within the top 8% of the country’s districts. That’s much more than “one of the biggest fish in a very shallow pond.”
I’ll take that any day of the week.
“It seems Decatur is one of the biggest fish in a very shallow pond.”
Good. A big fish in a shallow pond is a great position for students.
“Shouldn’t a Big Fish at a Little Pond be worth at least a second look before a Little Fish at a Big Pond?”
“The phenomenon of relative deprivation applied to education is called – appropriately enough – the Big Fish, Little Pond Effect.”
“Small Ponds are welcoming places on the inside. They have all of the support that comes from community and friendship-and they are places where innovation and individuality are not frowned upon.”
The above topic is detailed in David And Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell.
Hello Fence Sitter.
Are you confident in your big fish in a shallow pond analogy as it relates to CSD?
Look forward to the discussion later this evening.
I could have phrased that better. By “shallow pond” I didn’t mean CoD. Rather, I meant the state of Georgia, which I believe overall suffers in comparison to other states with regard to public education. The relatively “big fish” is CoD.
If I may argue against myself for a moment, the rankings use a methodology which attempts to adjust for differences in state-administered tests for school systems from state to state. The idea is to get an apples-to-apples comparison of school districts in different states. But of course this adjustment method may be flawed, thus leading to Georgia schools being under-ranked.
Fair enough. I cannot speak to the state of Georgia, but know first hand that CSD has a number of dedicated and passionate individuals who work hard to improve the lives of students in our city.
I think “high marks in multiple categories” describes CSD better than “excellent”. As a public school system in a state not known for its quality of public education, we have room for improvement in some areas. I say this, not to be a Debby Downer, but because parents need a realistic picture. We are very good, not great. I have run into parents recently who say something along the lines of “I moved here from Northern Affluent City X and paid top dollar for a new house in Decatur and I’m so disappointed in Situation Y at CSD School Z”. On the one hand, this fresh view from newcomers is probably good for pushing us as a school system to keep improving. But on the other hand, I think families moving in and/or with young children do not always have all the information. The mantra now for where to send your children to school is Decatur, Decatur, Decatur, whereas it used to be Morningside, Druid Hills High School, Lakeside, Oak Grove, Dunwoody, Alpharetta. But that doesn’t mean that CSD is right for everyone nor that it’s excellent in all ways. If you are coming from an affluent school district that spends $25,000 to $32,000 per student, you will see a difference. I can’t seem to google the most recent per pupil expenditures for CSD and the State as a whole but I’m going to guess that they are somewhere around $12,000 and $10,000, respectively.
If I had to do it all over again, I would choose to live in the City of Decatur and send my children to school here. On the whole, I love our teachers, staff, students, and parents. But our schools are not the Holy Grail and, given our school crowding, families shouldn’t come here if there are other parts of the country or private or suburban schools that would suit them better. We are a very good school system.
Can we please put this on billboards at each major entrance to the City, as well as in a disclaimer on each & every real estate listing for a SFH here? Because this is one of the most honest, perceptive statements about our schools I’ve seen in a long time, and it would surely give much-needed perspective to those considering where to move when leaving “Northern Affluent City X” to come south (or Northern Affluent Georgia Suburb X to move intown).
This is a fair and even-handed assessment. That said, having spent 5 years in Grant Park (Neighborhood Charter School), 5 years in Alpharetta (New Prospect Elementary and Webb Bridge Middle), and now 5 years in Decatur (Clairemont Elementary, Oakhurst Elementary, FAVE, Renfroe, and DHS), I feel like I’ve finally found a school system that really works for me and my kids. If it weren’t for CoD, I don’t think we’d still be living in Atlanta. Which is not to say it’s all roses all the time — there are any number of things that are problematic and even seriously defective. But from my experience (admitted limited), Decatur is as good as it gets in ATL public schools.
It’s the school system for us too but you have to stay involved, alert, and realistic. School and college rankings usually irritate me. They don’t describe the real story IMHO. Besides the fact that the data can be shaped and interpreted in a myriad of ways, the most important factor is what works for YOUR family, not for the aggregate. I won’t really care if CSD comes out #3 in Best Public School Teachers and #2 in Best Place to Teach if my children keeping getting assigned that teacher that we all know should have been let go ages ago. Or if the high school gets tracked so that certain students never seem to get the best teachers. Yesterday, the AJC had a story called “Georgia high schools make Newsweek top 500 list”–none of the 7 Georgia schools on the list are Decatur High School. Tomorrow, something may come out that makes DHS look fantastic.
BTW, I happened to go one of those public high schools that now has an astronomically high per pupil expenditure rate–so high that it’s what entry level state employees with a master’s degree in Georgia earn! Back in the day, 95% of graduates went to college so it’s now probably 99.9% I recently went back and moseyed around a bit. I didn’t come away thinking “Gosh, I wish my children went to school here”. There’s still a homey, community neighborhood feel to CSD that’s hard to beat. I do suspect that the customer service and communication are better than what you find in Georgia public school systems.
There are 24 school systems who provide a better/nutritious lunch to children than Decatur. Doesn’t that surprise people?
I wonder how current their info is on nutrition? Seems like big changes for CSD nutrition have happened just in the last 2 years or so. Also, I think there are some districts that provide free breakfast and lunch to all students, due to poverty levels in many of the small counties. I bet that plays into the evaluation as well.
Wait a minute, 19th in the state on “Most Diverse”. We need the City to spend more of our tax dollars on additional surveys and studies. We have to raise up that number.