The Fannin County Board of Education heard good news at their fall board training event Tuesday, September 23.
On several metrics, Fannin County High School (FCHS) is outperforming state and global averages, Principal Dr. Scott Ramsey said to board members.
He credited the school’s success to the teachers and students that give the school a good atmosphere.
“It’s not the learning and all the different things that go on,” he said. “It’s the people that either make it feel like a family or not.”
The metric for a school’s climate measures parent, student and teacher perception of discipline, safety and substance-free environment, and schoolwide attendance.
On this measure, FCHS scored 82.8, more than five points higher than the Georgia state average of 77.4.
In this category, FCHS’s lowest scores were in attendance and highest scores were in being safe and substance-free.
In the College and Career Ready Performance Index, FCHS scored 75.5, the highest of all its surrounding counties.
This ranking measures how well schools do at preparing students for the next step in career or education.
Content Mastery measures how well students understand the subjects they study. On this metric, FCHS scored 72.6, more than four points higher than the state average of 68.10.
Another measurement, Closing the Gap, showed that student subgroups in FCHS have improved their achievement rates.
On this measure, FCHS achieved a score of 100, Ramsey said.
“You can’t do better than 100,” he said.
In Career, Technical and Agricultural Education, 133 FCHS students have completed their pathways, Ramsey said. And on Advanced Placement classes, FCHS has beat the state average in every area except calculus.
“We only had three students take that, so those numbers are a little bit misleading,” Ramsey said.
On SAT testing, FCHS students outperformed both state and global averages.
“I’m very proud of that,” Ramsey said.
Students and teachers also told the board members what FCHS is like.
Student Avi Ethington said that although she’s gone to school in Kentucky, New Zealand and Israel, she’s found there’s something special about school here.
“It’s really a family atmosphere,” Ethington said. “They’ve wanted me to succeed more than any other school I’ve been to.”
FCHS students and teachers are accepting and friendly, she said.
They also have encouraged her to achieve her best, she said.“Enrollment is such a huge opportunity that not everybody gets,” Ethington said.