By Kathryn Schiliro
Managing Editor

Morgan County Elementary School has been recognized by the state Department of Education (DOE) as one of 78 schools in the state being recognized for being a "Highest-Performing School."
Part of the "Reward Schools" initiative through the U.S. DOE, "part of the next generation of accountability," according to an email from the Georgia DOE to Superintendent Dr. Ralph Bennett, Highest-Performing schools are in the top 5 percent of the state's Title I schools – of which there are 1,570 schools – when it comes to having the "highest absolute performance" for a three-year period on statewide assessments.
Additionally, Highest-Performing schools must have made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) – a measure of student achievement based on standardized test scores, the goal of which increases nearly each year – for all students and for all subgroups in 2011, and there must not be "significant achievement gaps" between subgroups that aren't closing.
"This is a testament to the work they're doing at the elementary school," Bennett told the school board at their meeting Monday night.
Board members praised the school's teachers and administrators.
"This is outstanding," Nelson Hale, board chairman, said. "It's awfully nice to get recognition like that."

Printed in the November 15, 2012 edition