In the final year of Georgia’s CRCT testing, City Schools of Decatur students seem to have again posted average scores above 90% in all 5 disciplines, inline with the strong scores put up by the city school system last year.  (We had to pull together the data above from various sources. I promise you, it was fun. Click it to enlarge)

According to the AJC, in DeKalb…

…86 percent of third graders met or exceeded the reading standard, as did 89 percent of fifth graders and 91 percent of eighth graders. The biggest change from the prior year was in fifth grade, where there was a 2.8 percentage point increase in the number of students passing.

It was a different story in math, where there was more change in the key grades: the third grade pass rate rose by 2.9 percentage points, but fifth grade dropped 2.8 points and eighth was down 3.9 points. The actual math pass rates were low compared to reading, where the percent of students who met or exceeded the standards ranged from the high 80s to the low 90s. The pass rate in math was 68 percent for third graders, 76 percent for fifth graders and 65 percent for eighth graders.

The AJC has summaries for all Atlanta metro counties HERE.

CRCT is being retired this year and replaced with “Georgia Milestones”, reportedly a more demanding test that will span all grades 3-12, instead of the current system where 3rd-8th graders take CRCT and 9th-12th graders take EOCT.

Near Fellini’s, Decatur GA (pic submitted by Rodney)

Continuing on our favorite U.S. cities thread from last week, what are your favorite small, medium and large international cities?

Photo by Moyan Brenn Delight via Flickr

East Ponce de Leon Ave, Decatur GA (pic courtesy of Marla Tiara via Twitter)

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There’s been a lot of talk recently regarding Decatur annexation over the past couple of months, as the City Commission has accepted large parcel annexations of the Parkwood neighborhood and a recent 31 parcel annexation along South Columbia and Derrydown Way.

At the June 16th Decatur City Commission meeting, in response to a question from Commissioner Fred Boykin, City Manager Peggy Merriss mentioned that the city was working on an “Annexation Master Plan”.  So we followed up with her to get further details on a) what is it?  b) how does it affect future annexation petitions from neighboring property owners? c) what’s the timeline?

Here is Ms. Merriss’ reply…

The goal of the Annexation Master Plan is to develop a proposal for the future Decatur city limits given that it still appears likely that the central and northern parts of DeKalb County will be part of some city in the next 3-5 years.

The plan would have to take into account:

• current and future land use and zoning
• potential development and redevelopment possibilities
• demographics – both existing conditions and future projections
• service delivery requirements and costs both for the City and for the City Schools
• revenue projections
• technical information such as maps, a survey and identification of significant public and private institutions

The intent would be to have a plan that would be adopted by the City Commission and the Board of Education that would be provided to the DeKalb delegation of the Georgia General Assembly for a local bill.  It would certainly be more efficient if there was a single bill with one comprehensive annexation attached.

At this point we do not intend to accept annexation petitions.  We are asking people who indicate interest to collect petitions that can be submitted with the master plan.

The time frame for the annexation master planning process would be to start the technical work this summer and then do the public work in early fall so that we can have a plan ready for consideration in November.

The Decatur Arts Alliance’s Angie Macon writes in…

Just in time for summer vacation!

Young Emerging Artists will be returning in 2014 on September 27, 2014 on the square. YEA! is open to students K-12 and is not limited to kids who live in Decatur.

Application deadline is August 25, 2014.

Applications are available at:  decaturartsalliance.org/blog/events/yea/

Need some funds to get started?  The Decatur Education Foundation has a grant opportunity for COD kids.  Here is the link:

decatureducationfoundation.org/our-work/diy-microloan-program/

Please contact the Decatur Arts Alliance for more details–[email protected]  or at 

Gwyneth and Robert point out a new shop that’s hung signs in the window of the Artisan retail location next to Ted’s along Commerce Drive. Splash of Olive’s website only states what’s also shown on the sign, that they will be a “purveyor of fine olive oils and vinegar”.