Is it Time to Finally Call Our Children Home?

What is in a name?  DeKalb residents fight.  Some call for
a new day.  Is it time to call our children home?

GTCO-ATL Editorial content follows:

Even though many residents in DeKalb County know that it isn't fair for one school to claim to be "the best" in a system that was falling apart at the seams, Lakeside High has enjoyed that reputation for a long time in Central DeKalb.  Dunwoody's schools are viewed by many as just that -  Dunwoody's schools.  But, even in Dunwoody there have been concerns raised by parents at the meeting held with the new superintendent that there are kids coming up in the ranks of DeKalb or from elsewhere that are in greater need than our schools are equipped or prepared to handle.  Dunwoody's solution may be to form its own school system, but that will be a tall order as most rural counties in the state are not in favor of splitting into smaller and smaller subsections because they risk losing funding in a time that the economy is already hurting.  

Even though a lot of people are saying that Lakeside is a school that attracts kids from all over the county and has been the school of choice for the well-connected, there are also many, many kids there who are great all on their own.  That's likely because "greatness" comes from within.  You can't "make" a kid great.  Parents know very well that as they get older, it is hard to "make" your kid do anything.  Greatness comes from giving your child inspiration and good role models to look up to.  We have to give them something to aspire to that will help them find their own drive and determination to get there. 

No matter where the kids come from and no matter what kind of money their parents make or whether they come from a broken home or one straight out of Mayberry, the kids in DeKalb County deserve to have an education system that is truly about them.  Wouldn't it be great if ALL the kids in DeKalb could have bragging rights about their school, regardless of whether or not it is an elementary school, theme school, charter school, middle school or any other type of school we have today?  Wouldn't it be amazing if the adults in this county could stop allowing their differences bring harm and division to the next generation and, instead, if we could find a way to work together to raise our entire county up to a higher standard of living?  

A higher standard would mean more jobs.  How will we get them?  By offering an educated workforce and by insisting our politicians are fair and reasonable when planning the future so that there are no surprises for the small business owner or the large corporation that is considering a move to our attractive slice of suburban Atlanta.  

Have you ever met a star student from Lakeside?  Then you will likely note they are polite, intelligent, ambitious and concerned about the future.  Have you ever met a star student from Tucker Middle School?  The same qualities exist.  Stone Mountain?  Fernbank?  Decatur?  Look around you.  Not for the problems, but look around for the assets we have here, as Superintendent Thurmond calls them.  

"Our children are 20% of our population, but 100% of our future," Thurmond said to a group at Brockett Elementary last evening.  

We have families all over the district who were managing to squeeze onto the already full roster at Lakeside pushing classrooms to capacity.  The number of children who do not attend their own school is staggering.  Thurmond mentioned it was something to the tune of 15,000.  

So, Lakeside has slipped in the rankings, but should we be celebrating a loss of prestige? What was it that put them on top to begin with?  Was it a combination of attitude, procurement of top teaching talent, finally getting a world class appearance for its school and making a great partnership with the Fernbank Science Center.  Speculation can twist ideas in all kids of directions and turn emotions on both sides of an issue into fierce camps of opposition.  

So, let's stop the speculation.  Let's find a way to come to the table together and fix DeKalb.  

Lakeside will bounce back.  Let's just hope their bounce up doesn't leave a giant shadow over the rest of the schools that were built to serve our children.  Let's raise the bar for all our schools and call the children to come home.  

More on this issue to be included in the Tucker Patch. 

Lakeside High - Is It Still Worth Leaving Home For?

Here's a note about Lakeside from DeKalb School Watch Blog Two:
Posted on April 23, 2013 by dekalbschoolwatch

Congratulations to DeKalb School of the Arts, Arabia Mountain and Chamblee High School (all with magnet programs) for making the list of top high schools published annually by U.S. News.

For many years, Lakeside retained bragging rights as one of the top schools in Georgia to make the US News top list. But now, they aren’t even a contender. Surely this is a sign of the falling achievement levels or at least an imbalance in success in our traditional schools. Those that can have fled to private, charter or magnet schools, which have all done well having absorbed our best and brightest—and provided excellent teachers with low student to teacher class ratios. (#2 ranked DSA: 13:1, #6 ranked Chamblee: 15:1 and #14 ranked Arabia: 17:1)

Click here to see the Georgia ranking list showing class size and relevant data. All schools are listed and have data for your review. To their credit, Lakeside, shown as larger than the average GA high school and with a student-teacher ratio of 18:1, tested 70% of AP students with 39% of them passing the AP exam. DSA tested 100% of AP students with 75% passing the test, Chamblee tested 68% of AP students with 48% passing the test and Arabia tested 100% of AP students with 19% passing the test.

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Click here to see how the rankings were calculated.