The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement releases school direct certification rates as a measure of student poverty. Direct certification means that a student was directly certified for free lunch through state data-sharing. Students qualify if their family receives SNAP or TANF benefits, or if the student is identified as homeless, unaccompanied youth, foster, or migrant. See here for more information on direct certification.

The table below shows direct certification rates by school. Use the grade level filter to view different levels. Atlanta Public Schools has the three highest poverty schools in the state for each grade level- elementary, middle, and high.

The graph above includes all Georgia schools that have a CCRPI score and are not alternative schools¹. Use the system filter to highlight a different system. Other school systems with several very-high poverty schools tend to be counties that contain mid-size cities, such as Bibb County (Macon), Dougherty County (Albany), and Richmond County (Augusta).

The numbers for APS schools do not exactly match those in our poverty vs. test score visual. That visual shows the percentage of Milestones test-takers who are either direct certification or ELL. The state data on this post shows direct certification rates for all K-12 students on October 3, 2017².

The next visual displays district-level direct certification rates. Click on or tap a district to view rates for each school. Use the sort option to change the sort from alphabetical to highest to lowest poverty rate.

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1. Schools do not have a CCRPI score if they either don’t have tested grades, such as a K-2 primary school, or if they have few tested students, usually alternative schools.
2. Most Milestones tests take place in April, so the school population will likely change slightly due to mobility versus the October count. Also Milestones typically covers 95-100% of students in grades 3-8, and students in the eight high school EOC courses.