Greetings, Comet Families!

January 24th is National Compliment Day, so I would like to kick off this week by letting our Comet Nation know how appreciative I am for your partnership in educating our GSMS scholars.  We recognize and value the support of our teachers, staff, parents and community members, who all play a pivotal role in collaborating with us to address students’ challenges and opportunities for growth in their academics and social-emotional development. We simply want to say …… THANK YOU, because we could never do this work without you!   While you’re thinking about it, put a positive compliment in your child’s bookbag, and perhaps even send an encouraging note to a teacher, who has been impactful in your child’s life.

Attendance Goal

Remember that we are on a mission to continuously improve our students’ attendance!  By March, we want to decrease our 8th grade absenteeism to 5% or less.  

Junior Achievement (JA) Finance Park Field Trip Volunteers

Our 8th grade scholars will participate in the JA Finance Park field trip this week, January 24-26th. We are still in need of parent volunteers to help chaperone this trip.  If you would like to serve as a parent volunteer, please contact Ms. Torsanya Davis, ASAP at Torsanya.Davis@gcpsk12.org.

Wednesday Morning Tutorials

Does your scholar need extra support in learning a standard?  Does your scholar need to retake an assessment, or make-up an assignment?  Your scholar’s teachers host tutorial sessions each Wednesday morning from 8:15 AM - 8:45 AM.  Your child must make an appointment with his/her teacher in advance and obtain a Tutorial Pass in order to attend Wednesday Morning Tutorials. Please encourage your scholar to take advantage of this opportunity.

Criteria for 9th Grade Promotion

To earn promotion to the 9th grade, students are required to pass five out of six subjects EACH semester. Language Arts and Mathematics must be two of the five subjects passed.

Should a student not earn promotion to 9th grade, he or she may have the opportunity to attend summer school to learn the AKS standards not mastered during the school year. Students may attend summer school for no more than two semester-long classes.

In Georgia, 8th grade students also are required to achieve a reading status of Grade Level or Above on the English Language Arts Georgia Milestones End of Grade (EOG) Assessment and achieve the performance level of Developing or higher on the Mathematics Georgia Milestones EOG Assessment. Students who do not meet either of these state promotion requirements may be required to retest after summer school.

NOTE:  For the 2023-24 school year, the Mathematics Georgia Milestones EOG Assessment will NOT be used to determine promotion as the state completes standards setting for the math assessment due to the introduction of new math standards. 

A student’s grades in mathematics will be used to determine if students have met the mathematics promotion criteria for 8th grade.

Promotion for an English Learner (EL) or a student with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) is guided by the student’s English Learner Proficiency Plan.