School Climate Star Ratings Released By State

Most Stephens County schools get a four-star rating for last year.

Last month, the Georgia Department of Education released the 2016 School Climate Star Ratings.

The School Climate Star Rating System goes from one to five stars.

All of the schools in the Stephens County school system received a four-star rating out of a possible five stars, except the Stephens County Fifth Grade Academy, which received a three-star rating out of five stars.

Four stars is considered above average and three stars is considered average. Nearly 69 percent of the schools in Georgia received either three or four stars.

The ratings are based on survey results and data from the 2015-2016 school year.

State education officials say that the school climate refers to the quality and character of school life, or the “culture” of a school.

The rating system assesses the climate of a school based on numerous factors, including a measure of student, teacher, and parent perception of a school’s climate; a measure of student discipline using a weighted suspension rate; school discipline incidents and student survey responses on use of illegal substances and prevalence of unsafe incidents within a school; and the average daily attendance of teachers, administrators, and staff members and the percentage of students with fewer than six unexcused absences.

Georgia State School Superintendent Richard Woods said that the state is committed to providing, in a responsible fashion, information on school performance for the use of educators, parents and communities.

Woods said the School Climate Star Rating gives a clear overview of the climate and culture within a school, which is a crucial factor for student success.

These ratings are provided as informational tools for schools, administrators, parents, and communities and do not impact a school or district’s College and Career Ready Performance Index score.