Fultons ACT Scores and Participation Rates Increase Recently released ACT scores show that Fultons student participation in the test is rising, while scores also increase and continue to surpass state and national averages. Nearly 60% (3,744 students) of Fultons Class of 2015 took the ACT. Our strategic plan sets the goal for our students to be college and career ready, and these ACT results are one measure of how well were doing, said Kenneth Zeff, interim superintendent. We continue to see high levels of success, while growing achievement throughout our district. Im pleased to see our results demonstrate real progress. Traditionally, scores tend to dip when the test-taking pool increases, but Fultons composite score remains steady at 22.9 a slight increase over last years score of 22.6. Participation in 2015 was at an all-time high of 3,744 students, an increase of nearly 150 students from the previous year. Fultons 2015 composite score remains high at 22.9 and better than the Georgia average of 21.0 and the national average of 21.0. Also, the results show more Fulton test-takers have met specific College Readiness Benchmarks set by the ACT. The benchmarks are based on the grades earned by students actively enrolled in college and help to define a high school students likelihood of successfully passing their first-year college courses. Forty percent (1,498) of seniors met the benchmarks by demonstrating college readiness in all four areas of the test English, math, reading and science. This percentage was significantly higher than the state and national averages, where 26% of Georgia students and 28% of students across the nation demonstrated this same college readiness.
Eight Fulton Schools Ranked in States Top 25 The College Board recently released results that show the Fulton County School System has more schools with high SAT performance than any other district in Georgia. Eight Fulton schools are also among the top 25 highest scoring schools in the state. In addition, Fulton has the states second highest writing score. Our SAT scores are one measure that the public looks to for determining the quality of our high school programs. From year to year, there are shifts in scores, but what we consistently see is overall high performance in our district, said Kenneth Zeff, interim superintendent. FultonReading (518), Math (525), Writing (515), Total (1558)State Reading (490), Math (485), Writing (475), Total (1450)NationalReading (495), Math (511), Writing (484), Total (1490) Although rankings are not officially released, data shows that eight schools in Fulton are among the highest-scoring schools in Georgia Northview High School Rank(1784) #2Alpharetta High School Rank(1689) #7Johns Creek High School Rank(1678) #8Chattahoochee High School Rank(1669) #10Milton High School Rank(1668) #11Roswell High School Rank(1649) #16Cambridge High School Rank(1643) #18Centennial High School Rank(1600) #25 In addition, four recent Fulton graduates earned a perfect 2400 score on the reading, math and writing sections of the exam, and 14 graduates had perfect scores (1600) on the reading and math sections.
Fulton Named Charter System of the Year Fulton County Schools are the first-ever recipient of the Charter System of the Year Award for its leadership in supporting school-level governance and innovation, the Charter System Foundation Inc. announced June 24. The award, which includes a $10,000 prize, recognizes the Georgia charter system that best demonstrates effective, local governance through the empowerment of parents, teachers and community members, leadership in the charter system community, strong community partnerships, and academic progress supported by flexibility and innovation. This award recognizes Fulton County Schools culture of local school autonomy and the school boards vision to involve parents, teachers and community members in developing their schools strategic direction, said Kenneth Zeff, interim superintendent of the district. We are honored to be recognized and remain committed to the charter system model.
Roswell Receives Large Donation for New Adult Aquatics Facility The Friends of the Roswell Parks and the Roswell Ramblers jointly presented a check in the amount of $37,500 to the City of Roswell, at the August 10 Mayor and City Council meeting to support the Citys new Adult Aquatics Facility. The check represented the first half of the organizations $75,000 commitment to finance the construction of a therapeutic whirlpool at the state-of-the-art aquatics facility, which will open adjacent to Roswells Adult Recreation Center in early 2016.
Neurobiology Fundraiser for Schizophrenia and Bipolar Research On October 1st, at Synergy Fine Art, there will be a fundraiser to raise money for the Neurobiology Foundations research efforts on Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. It is important to learn more about these issues because they have been shown to often affect young men between the ages of 18-21, many times without warning, ending in a high rate of suicide. In addition to the October fundraiser, Jeremy D. Ollerenshaw, Ph.D. Executive Director of the Neurobiology Foundation is planning on swimming the English Channel and the Canary Channel next year to help raise awareness and funding. The Neurobiology Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt 501c(3) organization. For more information on how you might be able to help, please visit NeurobiologyFoundation.org
Fulton County Schools Receives First Ever Charter System of the Year Distinction Fulton County Schools is the first-ever recipient of the Charter System of the Year Award for its leadership in supporting school-level governance and innovation, the Charter System Foundation Inc. announced. The award, which includes a $10,000 prize, recognizes the Georgia charter system that best demonstrates effective local governance through the empowerment of parents, teachers and community members, leadership in the charter system community, strong community partnerships, and academic progress supported by flexibility and innovation. This award recognizes Fulton County Schools culture of local school autonomy, and the school boards vision to involve parents, teachers and community members in developing their schools strategic direction, said Kenneth Zeff, interim superintendent of the district. We are honored to be recognized and remain committed to the charter system model.
National Merit and National Achievement Scholarship Winners Thirty-eight Fulton County graduating seniors were named winners in the 2015 National Merit and National Achievement scholarship programs. Along with the prestigious National Merit/National Achievement Scholar distinction, the students earn cash scholarships to use at the college or university of their choice. Some of the scholarships are sponsored directly by the National Merit Corporation or by businesses that designate awards for finalists with career plans the sponsor wishes to encourage; for children of their employees; or for residents of a community where a company has operations. They may be renewable for four years of undergraduate study or be granted as one-time awards. Also sponsored by National Merit, the National Achievement Scholarship Program named three Fulton seniors to its 2015 roster. Identical in rigor and prestige to the National Merit competition, the scholarship is open to African-American high school students. National Merit sponsored scholarships: Nicole Izmaylov and Alexandria Nickens, Alpharetta High School; Sabrina Long, Cambridge High School; Maxwell Roberts and Kaliq Wang, Centennial High School; Heeseung Choi and Manasa Kadiyala, Chattahoochee High School; Krishna Sambhu and Ha Yun Yoon, Johns Creek High School; Kevin Berry and Sean Flanagan, Milton High School; Tarun Daniel, Tony Gong, Justin Lee, Kyung Min Shin, Liheng Song, Natasha Venugopal, Michael Wang and Albert Zhang, Northview High School; Carolyn Stanek and Albert Xiong, Riverwood International Charter School. Corporate sponsored scholarships: Hope Hong, Rajiv Reddy and Amy Wang, Alpharetta High School; Christine Feng, Nikita Varman and Stephanie Wyman, Chattahoochee High School; Kelsey Li, Johns Creek High School; Victor L. Chen, Daniel Jiang, Oxford Wang, Charles Xiao and Amy Yang, Northview High School; Robert McKenzie and Ramya Prabhakar, Roswell High School. National Achievement sponsored scholarships: Kellyn Archambeau and Jermaine Bryant, Northview High School; and Corinn Gist-Stevenson, Riverwood International Charter School.
Interim Superintendent Fulton School System The Fulton County Board of Education recently named Kenneth Zeff as the school systems interim superintendent. The announcement came after current Superintendent Robert Avossas selection as the new leader for the School District of Palm Beach County in Florida. Zeff joined Fulton County Schools in 2012 as its Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer. In this role he provided direction for the development and execution of the school systems overall strategy to improve student achievement throughout the district. Departments under the Division of Strategy and Innovation include School Governance and Flexibility, Start-up Charter Schools, Grant Development, Accountability, Research and Program Evaluation, and the Fulton Education Foundation. Ken Zeff has the experience and expertise to help Fulton County Schools build on our steady growth in student achievement, said Linda McCain, school board president.
Sally FitzGerald Scholarship Winners North Fulton Council of PTAs announced the selected recipients of its annual Sally FitzGerald Scholarships. This years winners have shown high standards in education along with demonstrating leadership in both their schools and community. Each scholarship winner was awarded $1,500 at the NFC PTA Presidents & Principals Luncheon held in April. The 2015 recipients of the scholarships are John Brolly of Milton High, Ingrid Cai of Centennial High, and Noah Sannes of Cambridge High.
Operation SafeKids at WBMS Webb Bridge Middle School had the honor recently of hosting Operation Safekids. Webb Bridge had this amazing opportunity that only a handful of schools a year receive and it was not only fun but educational for the students! The event was organized by the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA), the largest, nonpartisan, nonprofit professional association exclusively representing federal law enforcement. Currently, this organization represents over 25,000 active and retired Federal law enforcement officers and over 65 agencies. With the help of FLEOA, WBMS had various law enforcement agencies to help teach the students about their programs and how they help provide a safe environment for all of us and our communities. Agencies attending included local Alpharetta Police Department SWAT and K9 units, Alpharetta Fire Department, Georgia State patrol, DEA, Federal Protective Services, Environmental Protection Agency, GBI, FBI, Secret Service and others. Webb Bridge MS was fortunate to have over 18 agencies attend their Operation Safekids.