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Georgia school board elections, 2014

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2014 School Board Elections

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Elections Information
Election Dates2014 Elections
Poll Opening and Closing Times

A total of 40 Georgia school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held elections in 2014 for 131 seats. Twenty-one districts held their elections on May 20, 2014, while 19 districts held elections on November 4, 2014. If no candidate received a simple majority of the vote for a given seat in the election on May 20, 2014, a runoff election for that seat was held between the top two vote recipients on July 22, 2014.

Here are several quick facts about Georgia's school board elections in 2014:

  • An average of 1.85 candidates ran for each board seat up for election in 2014 in Georgia’s largest school districts by enrollment, which was slightly lower than the national average of 1.89 candidates per seat.

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  • 47.56 percent of the school board seats on the ballot in 2014 were unopposed. This was a higher percentage than the 32.57 percent of school board seats that were unopposed nationally.
  • 79.39 percent of the incumbents whose seats were on the ballot ran for re-election in 2014, and they retained 68.70 percent of the total seats up for election.
  • A total of 41 newcomers were elected to school boards in Georgia. They took 31.30 percent of the total seats, which was lower than the 38.19 percent of school board seats that went to newcomers nationally.
  • The largest school district by enrollment with an election in 2014 was Gwinnett County Public Schools with 160,744 K-12 students.
  • The smallest school district by enrollment with an election in 2014 was Walker County Schools with 9,242 K-12 students.
  • DeKalb County School District had the most seats on the ballot in 2014 with seven seats up for election.
  • Twelve districts were tied for the fewest seats on the ballot in 2014 with two seats up for election in each district.

The districts listed below served 1,183,107 K-12 students during the 2010-2011 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.[1] Click on the district names for more information on the district and its school board elections.

2014 Georgia School Board Elections
District Date Seats up for election Total board seats Student enrollment
Bibb County School District 5/20/2014 2 8 24,961
Bulloch County Schools 5/20/2014 4 8 9,530
Camden County Schools 5/20/2014 2 5 9,437
Carroll County Schools 5/20/2014 3 7 14,587
Catoosa County Public Schools 5/20/2014 2 5 10,959
Clarke County School District 5/20/2014 5 9 12,371
Colquitt County Schools 5/20/2014 3 6 9,259
Columbia County School System 5/20/2014 2 5 23,722
Coweta County School System 5/20/2014 4 7 22,490
DeKalb County School District 5/20/2014 7 7 98,115
Effingham County Schools 5/20/2014 2 5 11,553
Fulton County Schools 5/20/2014 4 7 91,864
Griffin-Spalding County School System 5/20/2014 3 5 10,685
Henry County Schools 5/20/2014 2 5 40,909
Houston County Board of Education 5/20/2014 5 7 27,061
Liberty County School System 5/20/2014 4 7 10,525
Lowndes County Schools 5/20/2014 3 7 10,357
Muscogee County School District 5/20/2014 5 9 32,288
Rockdale County Public Schools 5/20/2014 2 7 15,864
Savannah-Chatham County Public School System 5/20/2014 5 9 35,246
Troup County School System 5/20/2014 3 7 12,648
Barrow County School System 11/4/2014 5 9 12,703
Bartow County School System 11/4/2014 3 5 14,366
Cherokee County School District 11/4/2014 5 7 38,760
Clayton County Public Schools 11/4/2014 4 9 50,366
Cobb County School District 11/4/2015 3 7 107,291
Dougherty County School System 11/4/2014 3 7 15,906
Douglas County School System 11/4/2014 3 5 24,601
Fayette County Board of Education 11/4/2014 2 5 21,274
Floyd County Schools 11/4/2014 2 5 10,496
Forsyth County Schools 11/4/2014 2 5 37,262
Glynn County School System 11/4/2014 3 7 12,868
Gwinnett County Public Schools 11/4/2014 2 5 160,744
Hall County Schools 11/4/2014 3 5 25,946
Newton County Schools 11/4/2014 3 5 19,478
Paulding County School District 11/4/2014 3 7 28,407
Richmond County School System 11/4/2014 5 10 32,322
Walker County Schools 11/4/2014 2 5 9,242
Walton County School District 11/4/2014 3 7 13,208
Whitfield County Schools 11/4/2014 3 5 13,436

State profile

Demographic data for Georgia
 GeorgiaU.S.
Total population:10,199,398316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):57,5133,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:60.2%73.6%
Black/African American:30.9%12.6%
Asian:3.6%5.1%
Native American:0.3%0.8%
Pacific Islander:0%0.2%
Two or more:2.1%3%
Hispanic/Latino:9.1%17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:85.4%86.7%
College graduation rate:28.8%29.8%
Income
Median household income:$49,620$53,889
Persons below poverty level:21.1%11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015)
Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Georgia.
**Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Georgia

Georgia voted Republican in six out of the seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, five are located in Georgia, accounting for 2.43 percent of the total pivot counties.[2]

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Georgia had five Retained Pivot Counties, 2.76 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.

More Georgia coverage on Ballotpedia

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Georgia
Education terms
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For more information on education policy terms, see this article.

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NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Georgia's scores were either below or equal to the national average in the 2012-2013 school year.[3]

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
Math - Grade 4 Math - Grade 8 Reading - Grade 4 Reading - Grade 8
Georgia 39% 29% 34% 32%
Alabama 30% 20% 31% 25%
Florida 41% 31% 39% 33%
South Carolina 35% 31% 28% 29%
U.S. average 41% 34% 34% 34%

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the U.S.

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Georgia and surrounding states during 2012 and 2013.[3][4][5]

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores*
State Graduation rate, 2012 Average ACT composite, 2012 Average SAT composite, 2013
Percent Quintile ranking** Score Participation rate Score Participation rate
Georgia 70% Fifth 20.7 52% 1452 75%
Alabama 75% Fourth 20.3 86% 1608 7%
Florida 75% Fourth 19.8 70% 1457 67%
South Carolina 75% Fourth 20.2 57% 1436 64%
U.S. average 80% 21.1 1498
*Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Rate (except for Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma, which did not report “Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate,” but instead used their own method of calculation).
**Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally.
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades 9–12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–11 and school year 2011–12. The event dropout rate for Georgia was higher than the national average at 3.9 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 3.9 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.[6]

See also

Georgia School Boards News and Analysis
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Footnotes