GaDOE releases lists of schools identified for additional support

The Georgia Department of Education released the 2023-2024 lists of schools identified for additional support, as required by federal law, along with the list of 86 schools which made the improvements needed in one year to exit identified status.

Under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states are required to identify schools in need of additional support – in Georgia, these designations are referred to as Comprehensive Support & Improvement (CSI) and Targeted Support & Improvement (TSI).

As part of the designation, states are federally required to identify their lowest-performing 5% of Title I schools, meaning there will always be identified schools even as performance statewide increases. CSI and TSI schools receive additional support to improve the educational outcomes of their students.

This year, 107 schools were identified for Comprehensive Support & Improvement and 78 schools were identified for Targeted Support & Improvement or Additional Targeted Support & Improvement (ATSI). Eighty-six schools made the improvements necessary to exit CSI or TSI support.

Additionally, four schools or grade levels initially identified for CSI or TSI support have since closed. These schools are listed in the Exit List linked at the top of this release, but are not included in the totals above.

“One of our most important responsibilities as the state’s educational agency is to help every school improve – so that they can provide the best possible education for the children they serve,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said.“The purpose is not to label schools but to partner with them to increase outcomes and opportunities for their students – as we have with the 86 schools that made the improvements to exit state support this year.”

Georgia has an updated process to identify CSI and TSI schools based on an amendment to its state Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan approved by the U.S. Department of Education in 2023. The identification criteria for each designation are described below.

Schools Identified for CSI Support

Georgia uses a staged identification process to identify CSI schools in three categories:

• The lowest-performing 5% of all Title I schools
• All high schools with a graduation rate at or below 67%
• All schools identified for Additional Targeted Support & Improvement (ATSI) for the same student group(s) for six years.

Schools Identified for TSI Support

Georgia uses a staged identification process to identify TSI schools in two categories:

• Targeted Support & Improvement (TSI): Identifies any school with one or more consistently underperforming subgroups
• Additional Targeted Support & Improvement (ATSI): Among schools meeting the TSI criteria, identifies any school in which any student group, on its own, would be identified as a CSI school.

TSI schools are identified annually, while ATSI schools are identified every three years.

How Schools Are Served

The Georgia Department of Education’s Office of School Improvement works directly with CSI schools and provides assistance to help them improve the educational outcomes of their students. Federal requirements mean school districts are charged with providing supports to TSI schools, while the state provides professional learning and targeted technical assistance.​

GaDOE