The staff at Blue Ridge Elementary School pulled together last year to accomplish in ten weeks what most schools work to achieve in three years.
The accomplishment earned them praise from the state Department of Education (DOE) and Fannin County School System leaders alike.
Principal Mark Young told what happened when he learned in January 2025 the school was put on the state’s list for Targeted Support & Improvement (TSI), meaning the school had been identified as needing help.
This list falls under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Placement occurs “when a subgroup of kids don’t preform well,” Young said.
Students with Disabilities were identified at Blue Ridge for the TSI list, which represents about 48 youngsters out of the third, fourth and fifth grades. Young explained that because Blue Ridge is a small school with a total enrollment of 368, “Every kid counts a lot,” toward any evaluation.
News of the list was a “punch in the gut,” Young said, but it did not create a response of pointing fingers or trying to place blame.
Instead everyone pulled together. “I knew this was going to be a problem that was going to take a team effort to solve,” he said.
Co-teaching pairs met and discussed every student, and each Special Education teacher was given a data day to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each student and what Specifically Designed Instruction looked like for each one. District leadership, Pioneer Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA) representatives and school level leadership worked constantly to monitor and improve the process.
The focus was English Language Arts with a specific target of improving writing for all students, Young said.
“Teachers adopted a culture where the expectation was the best the students could produce with the support of the faculty and staff,” Young said.
Ten weeks after Young received news of the TSI designation, students were tested in the Spring of 2025. The results drew attention all the way to the state DOE.
“Many of our students have never experienced academic success up until this point,” Young said.
A Georgia DOE statement said, “Blue Ridge Elementary fostered a culture of shared responsibility that led to meaningful student growth and sustained improvement.”
Young and Director of Student Services Lauren Payne presented the results of the accomplishment to the Fannin County Board of Education at its January workshop.
Identified as “Pulling others up, so we can all reach the top,” the presentation traced the progress at Blue Ridge Elementary School with students in the targeted subgroup.
Where students had not met targets or made progress previously, the assessment changed to “students made progress and met learning target.”
Addressing the various statistics, Young said, “Our kids are out-running the competition. We out-ran our competition, out-ran ourselves and met the learning target.”
Since news of the accomplishment was released, representatives of other schools on similar lists have visited Blue Ridge Elementary to learn how such rapid success was achieved.
“To get off the list is a big deal,” Young said. “Success is all about our teachers.”