Tommy Qualls

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  www.pickenscountyschools.org/ph.html - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/27/2007    Last Visited: 3/27/2007  

  Principal: Tommy Qualls

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  www.pickensprogress.com/average-sat-rises.html - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/9/2007    Last Visited: 9/9/2007  

  Tommy Qualls, Assistant Superintendent for Pickens County schools, said the lower writing scores here reflected similar results across the nation.He said both the state and national average scores were lower in writing.Qualls said they were "very pleased" to see Pickens students continue a trend of generally rising test scores, especially considering the decreases across the country."While they were going down, we were going up," he said.Among surrounding counties, only Fannin with a 1501 and Cherokee with a 1548 had better scores than Pickens.Other nearby county scores were Dawson - 1492; Gilmer - 1484; Lumpkin - 1458; White 1459; Towns - 1434; and Union - 1465.Qualls said it's also a point of pride that Pickens tests the most students of all nearby north Georgia counties (except Cherokee), regardless of whether they are college prep or not.

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  Pickens County School System - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/8/2008    Last Visited: 8/8/2008  

  Tommy Qualls Assistant Superintendent

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  Pickens County School System - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/21/2003    Last Visited: 12/21/2003  

  Assistant Principal: Tom Qualls
  
  Visit The Pickens High School Web Site

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  Pickens County School System - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/10/2007    Last Visited: 2/29/2008  

  PHS Girls Basketball Coach Byrom and Coach Thomas recognized the PHS Girls Basketball team as the 2006-2007 sub-region champions.
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  Pickens High School Principal Tommy Qualls recognized a student for placing second at Skills USA State Conference in plumbing.

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  Pickens County School System - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/12/2007    Last Visited: 2/29/2008  

  Pickens High School Principal Tommy Qualls recognized Dwayne Daniels.

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  Untitled Document - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/2/2006    Last Visited: 11/2/2006  

  "He's in this for the long haul, and he makes sure all his students get what they need," said PHS Principal Tommy Qualls.

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  Untitled Document - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/6/2006    Last Visited: 9/6/2006  

  PHS Principal Tommy Qualls was initially hesitant to offer too much praise for the scores as the combined score of long-used verbal and math sections of the test remained exactly the same as last year, a 995.But while comparing local scores to those in surrounding counties for this interview Qualls noted, "We're looking better and better."In Gilmer the average score was 1438 with only 79 test takers.In Fannin the average was 1459 with 91 test takers.Dawson County had a score of 1424 with 111 test takers.Among Georgia schools Davidson Magnet School had the highest overall average of 1752.The highest average among public schools was Walton High School in Cobb County with an average score of 1705.Qualls said he wasn't pleased that the combined verbal and math scores hadn't increased over the past year.But if the national and state averages in those areas dropped and Pickens remained the same, it actually speaks well of the local system, he said.When asked if he was pleased with the overall result, Qualls said, "Yes and no.You never want to stay stationary (with the combined verbal and math scores), but nationally there was some drop.So, if we can stay where we were at while everybody else is dropping, it's okay."Locally, the schools do several different things to help students prepare for the test including an SAT prep course, having an online SAT curriculum and requiring all students to take the PSAT, which is administered to students prior to the SAT.Qualls believes there are a lot of advantages to offering the PSAT.He said the state pays for all 10th graders to take the test; Pickens County pays for 9th graders and 11th graders to take it.While this program has only been in place a year, it is expected to pay big results in a few years when students who have been exposed to the preparatory tests several times start taking the SAT.Qualls said administering the PSAT ahead of time also serves as a good academic exercise."The PSAT will wake up some whose scores are not where they need to be if they are going to go to college, or it may encourage some to change fields [from college prep to other areas] where they should have been anyway," he said.While the SAT's usefulness at predicting college success is debated across the nation, Qualls said it is a good indication of what a student "could do" at college.But, he points out that maturity, study habits, and the ability to stay focused on classes in the face of distractions at college are all equally important.

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  Untitled Document - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 7/11/2006    Last Visited: 7/11/2006  

  Citing consistent implementation of the dress code as the "hardest thing I have to deal with," PHS principal Tommy Qualls, suggested making the rules more specific.
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  Every year there is some battle, said Qualls.This year, it was holes in the jeans."If a hole is above where shorts would be, then it's a problem," he said.
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  For now, Qualls said it was just important for the faculty to be consistent in enforcing the dress code."Everybody that walks in there has to be the same, that's the best we can hope for," he said.

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  Untitled Document - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 6/9/2005    Last Visited: 6/9/2005  

  Qualls Hired as Principal of Pickens High School
  
  Tommy Qualls, long-time employee of the Pickens County school system has been hired as principal for Pickens High School.Qualls, a former vice-principal of Pickens High, said Friday that he had no immediate changes planned for the school when he assumes the leadership there July 1."You don't come into a school and make huge, sweeping changes," he said.Instead, strengthening existing programs is the plan, Qualls said. The vocational program is one he wants to strengthen at PHS. Qualls said he wants to see the Technology career students just as prepared to go into the real world as the college prep students.When they are freshman, about 80 percent of students mark "college prep" on their registration sheets, Qualls said.In reality, only about half that number go on to a college."We must make [tech education] more attractive," Qualls said.Qualls explained that more exposure of students to real-life
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  Qualls' combined educational and administrative experience
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  Qualls would provide immediate support to the system, since there will be no learning curve when he starts the job,
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  Mitton said that hiring Qualls was the Board's number one
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  Qualls' first job was as a math teacher at PHS, where he taught from 1969 to 1973.After taking a job at Armuchee High in Floyd county, he returned to PHS again in 1984 to teach math and coach.In 1992 he became vice-principal and remained in that position until 2004.Most recently Qualls taught math at Sequoyah High School during the 2004-2005 school year.Even with his expertise in teaching and being vice-principal, he said being principal will still take some getting used to for both him and his colleagues.Qualls said every time there was a change in principals when he was a teacher, it made him nervous because he didn't know what to expect from the new person, but this situation is different."The teachers know what to expect from me," Qualls said.In his many years of teaching math at PHS, Qualls saw 27 of the current teachers go through the school as students.He helped

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