Story Snapshot
District : Clarke County School District
State : Georgia
Level : P-12
District Enrollment : 10,001-40,000 students
Community Type : Suburban
Related Tags : 1:1 Initiative, accessibility, Openly Licensed Educational Resources
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Innovative Learning Environments
With 21 schools and over 12,000 students, the Clarke County School District offers students a diverse learning environment that propels them to academic success. Thirty-four native languages are spoken and students graduate with a deep cultural awareness—giving them an edge in today’s global society. The district is made up of neighborhood schools in a college town of over 100,000, creating a true sense of community among teachers, parents and students.
The Challenge
Unlike most university communities, Athens-Clarke County, home to the Clarke County School District and the University of Georgia, has the third highest poverty rate among U.S. counties with populations between 65,000 and 249,000. Over 30% of children in Clarke County live in poverty, 49% live in single-parent homes and 19% of adults who are 25 years or older did not complete high school—all significant risk factors that are detractors for academic success. Despite these factors, student achievement continues to rise.
The Solution
One way to ensure that Athen-Clarke County students will be prepared to succeed in today’s global work is through the aggressive development and implementation of innovative digital learning environments. We worked closely with the Georgia Department of Education in developing a digital platform to curate, evaluate and store content digitally that is aligned to standards and accessible to all schools in the state. This school year all students in grades 3-10 have their own device to take home. We have full faith in our students that they will take care of their devices and use them appropriately, as time and time again, we have found that high expectations lead to high achievement.
Additional Resources
From Clarke County School District:
From the U.S. Department of Education:
District Point of Contact
Anisa Sullivan Jimenez
Email: jimenezan@clarke.k12.ga.us