ATLANTA – State Representative Alisha Morgan (D-Austell), along with First Lady Sandra Deal and State Superintendent Dr. John Barge, congratulated students at Fulton Science Academy Middle School’s “Blue Ribbon” celebration event on Wednesday, November 2nd. The event was held to recognize the school’s selection by the U.S. Department of Education as a 2011 Blue Ribbon School of Excellence.
“The school leader, teachers and students, together with parents, at Fulton Science Academy prove that public education can work when you have autonomy, the flexibility you need to make decisions in the best interest of your students, and high expectations,” said Rep. Morgan during her speech to the school. “The students, faculty and staff are doing their jobs, now it’s up to us at the state level to ensure we foster more opportunities to produce this kind of academic achievement statewide.”
Fulton Science Academy Middle School is the first charter school in Georgia to receive the National Blue Ribbon Award. The school’s faculty and administration asked Rep. Morgan to speak during its celebration event because they were aware of her longstanding advocacy for charter schools and that she was featured as a speaker at both the Georgia Charter School Conference and National Charter School Conference.
The Blue Ribbon School Program honors public and private K-12 schools for their academic excellence and ability to help students achieve at very high scholastic levels. The program is part of a larger U.S. Department of Education effort to identify and disseminate knowledge about best school leadership and teaching practices. Fulton Science Academy Middle School will be honored with its award at a formal ceremony in Washington D.C. on November 14-15, 2011.
The U.S. Department of Education named 304 schools as 2011 National Blue Ribbon Schools based on their overall academic excellence or for their success in closing achievement gaps. The Department will honor the all 255 public and 49 private schools with National Blue Ribbon School awards.
The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program, honors public and private schools based on one of two criteria: 1) Schools whose students are high performing. These are schools ranked among each state’s highest performing schools as measured by their performance on state assessments or, in the case of private schools, that score at the highest performance level on nationally normed tests; or 2) Schools with at least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds that improve student performance to high levels as measured by the school’s performance on state assessments or nationally-normed tests. Fulton Science Academy Middle School students were able to meet and exceed the Blue Ribbon School of Excellence eligibility guidelines in part because its students have continued to score in and above the top 10 percent on state school assessments.
Fulton Science Academy Middle School is a Georgia math and science charter school that was founded in 2002 and serves 510 students throughout Fulton County. The school has been the recipient of numerous state awards based on academic student success including the recent 2010 Gold Award for Student Achievement, and the highest score in all subject areas on the ITBS among Fulton County middle schools three years in a row. Fulton Science Academy Middle School also now has two sister charter schools: Fulton Sunshine Academy Elementary School and Fulton Science Academy High School also located in North Fulton County.
Since 2003, Alisha Thomas Morgan has represented Georgia’s 39th House District, serving Cobb County. She is the first African-American to serve in the Georgia House of Representatives from Cobb County and currently serves on the Children & Youth, Education, Governmental Affairs, and Health & Human Services committees. Rep. Morgan may be reached at 404-656-0109 or by e-mail at Alisha.Morgan@house.ga.gov.
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