30 replies to this topic

[socaguy]

Thats  awesome for Davidson!  My neice goes there and its great to know she is getting one of the best educations available in the SE!

[PJA]

Davidson continuously ranks number one in in the state as far as overall education goes. A.R. Johnson usually ranks somewhere in the top ten.  I think that's one of the reasons that the other Richmond Co. schools get such low ratings.  Most of the good students are in two schools.

[DaGABoyStinger]

Yeah, I graduated from A.R. Johnson in 2003.  I know in 2001 we went up from #7 to #3 in the state.  I believe we're still ranked at #3.  I saw a list one time before with these school rankings, I forgot which state website had it, but it was listed as Davidson as #1, a school in Gwinnett County as #2 and then us.

As far as the other Richmond Co schools.  I know Cross Creek (South Augusta) has been mentioned recently in haveing the next highest SAT scores other then Davidson and ARJ, and Westside obviously is next.  But also Davidson is good because it is a very strict and competitive school.  For instance, there only can be a certain set amount of students from three main racial backgrounds (black, white, other), and you have to "audition" to the school, like it's Julliard or something.  But at ARJ, you only have to of had a consistant B+ grade average to be considered.

Some other news on our Magnet Schools:
ARJ is being renovated/expanded to eventually house grades 6-12, instead of the current 9-12 (hopefully completed by 2008).  There are also talks about building another Magnet school at Dorothy Hines Elementary school similar to C.T. Walker Traditional Magnet School (grades pre. K- 8) and a Technical Magnet High School somewhere in Central or South Augusta.

My guess here is that this Technical Magnet school will help individuals who would rather work after HS instead of necessarily attending College; a great need for this city.

Edited by DaGABoyStinger, 03 September 2006 - 03:43 PM.

[Pillsbury]

Local businessman James Hull donated 2 million dollars to Augusta State's business department.   It's now known as the James Hull College of Business, heheehehe.    I'm not kidding.   Great news for my old college.  Here is the story:  Augusta State

[Lady Celeste]

I had to go check for myself and you guys are right. Davidson Magnet School did capture the top SAT spot for 2005.

This year's Top 10 individual school results are as follows......

School.......................................County/District.....................................Score

1. Davidson Magnet School..........................Richmond County.....................1752
2. Walton High School.................................Cobb County............................1705
3. DeKalb School of the Arts........................DeKalb County.........................1679
4. Northview High School.............................Fulton County...........................1670
5. Trion High School....................................Trion City.................................1669
6. Chattahooche High School.........................Fulton County..........................1666
tie.Chamblee High School.............................DeKalb County.........................1666
8. Roswell High School..................................Fulton County...........................1663
9. Lakeside High School................................DeKalb County..........................1660
10. North Springs High School........................Fulton County...........................1647

[Pillsbury]

Indeed.  The saddest part about Davidson is the fact that barely got a mention on one of the middle pages of our Metro section, but made the front page of the AJC--on a Sunday edition might I add.   I couldn't believe that the AJC had a better appreciation for what Davidson has accomplished than our newspaper.

[Lady Celeste]

Pillsbury, on Sep 15 2006, 01:21 PM, said:

Indeed.  The saddest part about Davidson is the fact that barely got a mention on one of the middle pages of our Metro section, but made the front page of the AJC--on a Sunday edition might I add.   I couldn't believe that the AJC had a better appreciation for what Davidson has accomplished than our newspaper.

I have now read that article. It is quite sad that it was not mentioned in Augusta's newspaper. from the article, it's number one status is quite a feat considering that the income levels of most of the metro Atlanta schools that made the top 10 are quite to extremely high. I would think that there would already be a second such charter school in the Richmond county area patterned after Davidson. It's success is to be commended and celebrated.

[Pillsbury]

A.R. Johnson is the other magnet school.  Its focus is more on arts and sciences.  I think Davidson's focuses more on drama and liberal arts.  A friend of mine contacted the Augusta Chronicle in that regard and they claim to be doing a more comprehensive story on Davidson.....haven't seen anything yet though.

Edited by Pillsbury, 16 September 2006 - 09:01 AM.

[DaGABoyStinger]

well....In response to that, Davidson has been consistently doing great things, that ALL of Augusta should know about well by now.  While this is the first time it's making the AJC that reaches all other parts of GA.  One thing to also consider too is that this school is almost in a place of it's own.  It's a magnet school that has its own strict rules and expectations of ALL it's students.  And so far I think they're population is around 700-750 Students.  Most of these other schools on the list are MUCH larger (bigger than some colleges), are more economically advantaged, and are regular comprehensive schools to my knowledge.

But I do agree.  Davidson is probably the best thing that Augusta-Richmond County has right now.  It was even reported in the National Geographic when they did the 30904 story during Master's week of 2003.

[Pillsbury]

^ You're correct.  The Augusta Chronicle, however, has a history of downplaying anything postive related to Richmond County, especially when it comes to education.   That newspaper will run huge articles on subjects such as the exodus of people from Richmond County or the booming population of Columbia County.  We're inundated with frivolous news from the suburban schools about football championships, spelling bees, et al.  When it comes to Davidson, however, the Chronicle publishes a 3 sentence article on it being the number one school in Georgia?  To me that's a story.  The fact that it happens every year makes it even more of a story.   Why do we get to read about how dangerous and bad Richmond County is everday?  Is that not just as blatantly apparent to anyone who lives here as Davidson's success?   The Chronicle is biased and it comes out in its treatment of Augusta's only core county.    When my old high school (Hephzibah) broke the 1000 mark on the SATs a couple of years ago, the Chronicle did everything it could to discredit those scores---as thought it were impossible for those kids to actually exceed the state average.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the world should stop because one of our schools is succesful, but the Chronicle makes me mad with its treatment of this city.  As you stated, Johnson finished high as well.  That makes two schools from Richmond up there.  How about the advanced program at Richmond Academy that's garnered awards?  How about an article that mentions all of those schools and talks about us in a positive light?

Edited by Pillsbury, 18 September 2006 - 07:35 AM.

[PJA]

Here's some interesting on the growth of certain schools in the area.

Details

I thought the last line was the most interesting.  I think it's only a matter of time before the economic boom really begins to hit South Augusta.