The Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS) might not wind up having 18 schools on the state’s Promise Scholarship Schools list. It could wind up having fewer. Or more.

The answer remains to be seen as the Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) completes what its Director of Educator Leadership and Research Laine Reichert called a “three-tiered validation method.”

The Georgia Promise Scholarship Act, Senate Bill 233, created both the Georgia Education Savings Authority and the Promise Scholarship in early 2024. That act also required that a Promise Schools list be posted by GOSA before Dec. 1.

As reported last week by the Savannah Morning News, an initial list was published on Nov. 27, but legislators “became aware of outliers in the CCRPI calculation that impacted the calculations for the Promise Act list of schools.” A new list was released Wednesday Dec. 4 only to be taken down five days later.

Here’s what we know about why.

Who holds the scores, holds the power?

GOSA’s Promise Scholarship press materials had previously indicated that the last two school years’ averages of College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) scores were used to determine which Georgia schools fell into the lowest performing 25th percentile. The Promise Act states that students at those lower performing schools then become eligible for the Promise Scholarship, which allows qualifying families to use up to $6,500 in funding for private school tuition, tutoring services, and other qualified education expenses through an education savings account.

According to Reichert, GOSA had “an extremely tight turnaround time” between when it had access to the schools’ data files for the CCRPI component scores and when GOSA had to produce the Promise Schools List.

CCRPI component scores fall within four categories that Georgia uses to determine each public school’s performance. Those categories are Content Mastery, Progress, Closing Gaps and Readiness (as well as Graduation Rate for high schools). Each component group has a subset of criteria that includes many data points such as state exams or school attendance among many others.

Up until 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on schools, the Georgia Department of Education (GADOE) used a formula to calculate an “overall score” for each school based on the component scores. Since 2020, the GADOE has not calculated the overall score as schools adjusted performance tactics and guidelines during and after the pandemic.

Even though GADOE has calculated schools’ individual component scores, the final overall score calculation now lies with GOSA due to changes brought about by the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act. GOSA now refers to the score as a “CCRPI Single Score” according to its 2024 Georgia Promise Schools Calculation Guide. The guide, a digital PDF document, is no longer accessible online, however it and other GOSA press materials also referred to the eligibility score as a “cumulative individual school rating.”

CCRPI overall score, cumulative school rating or single score? Regardless of the term, Reichert said that every Georgia public school’s performance score will be available for public review soon.

‘Complex’ process rushed to meet deadline

Reichert said that on top of the Dec. 1 deadline, GOSA also had to create its own nuanced computer code within the Stata software program it uses to calculate the scores.

“And the calculations are quite complex because of the variance from one school to another,” she said. She went on to explain that not all schools are equal in that one school may only have pre-K students while another school might have kindergarten through eighth grade, which impacts the CCRPI scores weights. So GOSA had to develop a code that could navigate various school configurations. “There’s a lot of nuance in it,” she said.

When asked why the list was published before the additional level of scrutiny was applied, she responded, “It should have had this level of scrutiny, but we literally had six business days to prepare the list.” She once again was referring to the timeline of when GOSA received the CCRPI component data from GADOE in order to calculate the final CCRPI single score by Dec. 1.

What schools will ultimately make the list will only be known when the final, validated list is released. Reichert hopes the list will be available by the end of this week. As far as any potential changes to the previously posted list, she said she “would not want to speculate at this time.”

SCCPSS Superintendent Denise Watts plans to speak publicly on the Promise Scholarship data on Wednesday, providing her and the district’s Data and Accountability team’s latest understanding of how Promise Scholarship Schools are determined.

Dec. 15 is the next deadline for Georgia families to note because that date is when GOSA plans to announce dates for the student application period.

Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at JSchwartzburt@gannett.com.

European Union foreign affairs ministers gathering on December 16 to discuss Georgia should call for an independent investigation into the country’s clampdown on peaceful anti-government protests, now in their second week. EU ministers should also sanction officials responsible for violent abuses against protesters.

The heavy-handed government response to protests, amid the country’s political and constitutional crisis, risks plunging Georgia further into a human rights crisis.

Nationwide, tens of thousands are protesting the government’s decision to abandon Georgia’s EU accession. This decision violates Georgia’s constitution, which enshrines full EU integration as a goal for the Georgian state. It also transgresses the will of some 80 percent of Georgia’s population.

The pivot by the government comes one month after disputed October 26 parliamentary elections that kept the country’s ruling party in power, but which local observers and Georgia’s president claimed were marred by massive vote-rigging. It also follows the adoption of repressive legislation targeting civil society and independent media.

The government responded to the protests with teargas, water cannons, and rubber bullets. Police beat, chased down, and detained largely peaceful protesters. Riot police, as well as violent mobs presumably associated with authorities, have beaten opposition media and independent journalists and interfered with media coverage. Several hundred protesters have been arrested on various misdemeanor and criminal charges. Many reported beatings and ill-treatment in detention; dozens required hospitalization.

Despite domestic and international pressure, the government is intensifying the crackdown.

The EU has deplored authorities’ repressive actions, but it’s time for decisive steps. The EU should seek independent investigations into the post-election violence by experts from the Council of Europe and the United Nations, calling on them to examine the unlawful use of force, arbitrary detention, and the mounting evidence of ill-treatment and torture.

Additionally, EU member states should muster the consensus to use the EU’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime to sanction officials responsible for authorizing and carrying out beatings and violence against Georgia’s protesters. The EU should also consider imposing Schengen visa requirements for Georgian government officials and diplomats. Sanctioning authorities should happen in parallel with stepped-up, flexible democracy support for civil society and media.

As the Georgian people look to the EU in their aspirations, EU leaders should show them more than moral support. Concrete and decisive steps are needed to prevent Georgia’s human rights crisis from further escalating.

WINDER, Ga. – A blanket, a toothbrush, a bag to hold your belongings – these are all simple things many people might take for granted.

One organization in Winder is making sure children of all ages have those basic needs met, and a little extra, particularly children experiencing trauma or a crisis.

“We all need that comfort. No matter how old we are. When trauma or crisis knocks on our door, a stuffed animal, a blanket can go a long way, no matter the age,” Misty Manus said.

Manus is the executive director of Adventure Bags. The nonprofit provides backpacks filled with comfort items, hygiene products, books, and more for children in need. Manus, a former foster parent, started with the organization as a volunteer.

“That’s actually how I got involved with Adventure Bags was through making donations of stuffed animals. And so I fell in love with their mission,” Manus said.

That mission started back in 2011. Tracey McMahon, the chairman of the board for the organization, was called to escort three children back to Georgia from Los Angeles for her job at the Department of Family and Children Services.

“All their stuff that they had – whatever they had with them when they went to Los Angeles was all in individual black trash bags,” she said.

McMahon helped get each child a backpack and filled it with all the essentials to go back home. She saw the difference those bags made for the kids.

“I saw such a proud happy moment. These kids had been through so much instability and whatever else was going on in their little lives, and she was proud to walk through the airport,” McMahon said.

She told her mom, Debbie Gori, about it, and she started Adventure Bags. It was her passion that she made sure was carried on.

“Before she passed away she said ‘You and Misty have got to keep this going,’” McMahon said.

And they have. Together with a small team of volunteers and help from big partners including PetSmart and Bombas, they have served more than 51,000 children across every county in the state.

“So we partner with agencies across the state of Georgia –  agencies such as DFACS, first responders, domestic violence shelters, homeless shelters, agencies that provide a direct service to children in crisis,” Manus said.

This year they expanded even more, sending backpacks to Georgia children impacted by Hurricane Helene. When tragedy struck at home, they had bags for the students at Apalachee High School.

“To be able to see their reaction – those kids pulling out those blankets and wrapping them around them or pulling out those stuffed animals and just hugging them,” Manus said.

Each bag is stuffed with care and typically inspected by Linda Morrison, the head volunteer.

“I’m kind of picky about the bags and the way that they get packed. So we always want to make sure that the books go in first so the child has a flat surface against their back, and the stuffed animal goes in last because that’s the first thing we want them to see,” Morrison said.

It’s a hug from a team who is thinking of every child and making sure they have what they need during some of the most difficult times, and zipped up with a little extra love.

“It just warms your heart to see that you are making a difference,” Manus said.

And their efforts have grown so much. Adventure Bags has outgrown its current space. The nonprofit is now hoping to move into what they call its forever home, with enough room to store all of the goods to fill even more bags in the future. If you want to learn more about their organization or how you can get involved, you can visit their website here.