Patch Politics

Obama Rocks Morehouse in the Rain

The live coverage is over, but replay the live blog to see what all the hype was about.

President Barack Obama gave the 129th commencement address speech on a wet and rainy Sunday afternoon, May 19th, at Morehouse College. Obama began his remarks to an excited yet wet crowd,most of whom had been seated as early as 6 am. at approximately 11:30 am. The sky opened just before the speech began, and the crowd was treated to a steady downpour throughout. Obama quipped that, “I would be out there with you, but the Secret Service gets nervous.” Obama was greeted with a big cheer when he emerged from a building adjacent to the stage with Morehouse College president John Silvanus Wilson, a former White House aide. The invocation was given by Rev. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous church. …

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Education: The Best- and Worst-Performing Schools of East Atlanta Patch

The College and Career Ready Performance Index is Georgia's new system to gauge the quality of our local schools.

The Georgia Department of Education has a new system for rating the quality of every public school in the Peach State. Based on the College and Career Ready Performance Index, East Atlanta Patch neighborhoods boast some of the best elementary schools in the city, including Drew Charter, Mary Lin and Atlanta Neighborhood Charter schools. But when it comes to middle and high schools, there's some work left to be done. The CCRPI is based on a scale of 100 and scores are calculated wih three main components: An additional 10 points, called challenge points, may be earned if a school has a significant number of students who are economically disadvantaged, English as a Second Language learners or disabled are meeting expectations. Here's how it …

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Péralte Paul

11:20 am on Friday, May 17, 2013

The chart has been updated, Don.   more ›

Gun Incident at Inman Middle School

Police: Eighth grader brought plastic gun to school.

A 13-year-old boy was arrested and charged with bringing a gun to Inman Middle School, earlier this month. The boy, who was not named because he is a minor, brought the black-handled, silver colored, plastic gun to the school on May 1, according to a police report about the incident. While Inman is in Virginia-Highland and gets kids from that neighborhood as well as Morningside, it draws students from Candler Park, Inman Park, Lake Claire and Old Fourth Ward. The boy displayed the gun to different students around the school and another student reported it to school officials. Inman administrators pulled the student from his class, found the plastic gun inside his bookbag in his locker and summoned police. The boy's mother was subsequently …

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Community Input Meetings for Atlanta Schools Superintendent Search Set

This is your opportunity to voice the qualities and skill sets you want to see in the next superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools.

The Atlanta Board of Education’s Superintendent Search Committee has released the schedule for four community input sessions — May 15, 16, 20 and 21. The sessions are designed to give citizens the opportunity to provide feedback on the characteristics they believe are critical in the next Atlanta Public Schools superintendent. The Superintendent Search Committee has pledged to gather input from all key stakeholders such as parents, teacher and students. “All members of the search committee affirm the importance of gathering extensive community input in this search,” said committee chair Ann Cramer, who is a retired IBM executive and mother of former APS students. “We hope everyone interested will take advantage of this opportunity, and we …

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Dual Accreditation: DeKalb's Safety Net?

Dual accreditation would allow each individual school to pursue its own accreditation from the Georgia Accrediting Commission.

Wesley International Academy to Move to Former Cook Elementary School Space

Agreement is for one year as school — which wants to stay in the Jackson cluster — seeks a permanent solution.

Atlanta Public Schools and Wesley International Academy have reached a preliminary agreement that will allow the charter school to move into the now-closed Cook Elementary School for the 2013-14 academic year. Both sides expect the deal to be finalized and signed in the next few days. It is only for one year, but it will save Wesley, a K-8 school, roughly $700,000 in rent it pays to Imagine Schools Inc. for its current space in Custer/McDonough/Guice. That money will instead go toward teacher training, supplies and student materials, and other education-related investments at the school, which serves baout 700 kids. “This is a big deal for us. This negotiation was hard fought,” Kamau Bobb, Wesley’s board chairman, told East Atlanta Patch…

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Drew Charter Students Celebrate STEAM Week with an Egg Drop Contest

Pupils designed different contraptions to see who could keep their egg from breaking.

EAST LAKE — The students at Drew Charter School capped off a week of celebrating STEAM - Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math - with an egg drop contest to showcase pupils' ideas for the best anti-breakage design. The contest was part of a week highlighting their engineering-related work they did all year. The school also hosted Designorama, in which craftsmen and craftswomen showed students the design principles of things they created, from woodworking to food.

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Drew Charter Students Named Carson Scholars

The Carson Scholars Fund, Inc. was founded in 1994 to address the education crisis in the United States.

Twenty Atlanta Public Schools students, including three from Drew Charter School, were named Carson Fund Scholars. The students will each receive $1,000 college scholarships. The fund is named after Benjamin S. Carson, the famed Johns Hopkins Pediatric neurosurgeon, and his wife, Candy. They founded the funded in 1994 after reading a study that showed the United States ranked 21st out of 22 nations in science and mathematics. Since then, the fund has awarded scholarships to students in grades 4 to 11 who excel academically and are dedicated to serving their communities. The Drew students named as scholars were: Since 2002, the Carson Scholars Fund has recognized more than 400 students in the Southeast.

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Price Middle School Raising Funds for France Trip

Ten middle school students and 6 chaperones are to meet classmates from sister school on a 10-day educational trip. They are holding a fundraiser to defray cost of the trip.

HISTORIC SOUTH ATLANTA — The purpose of traveling to France is to further enhance students’ knowledge and skills to become active global citizens of our 21st century society. In addition, it will allow Luther Judson Price Middle School students to meet their French classmates from College de Haut Penoy and experience going to school in another country. However, in order to make this dream become a reality, we need your assistance by sponsoring 16 people selected to travel to Nancy–Metz, France. It is our hope that you will support these students, their parents, and the French teacher, Madame Shamita Johnson, of Luther Judson Price Middle School. Thank you for your time and your support! Fundraiser & Donations There will be a Price French …

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