Comments on: Dr. Hall spoke on test questions: Did she say right things?

By: Chris Murphy, Atlanta, GA

Chris Murphy, Atlanta, GA — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:08:21 +0000

If Hall had an management skills whatsoever those schools would have been flagged long before the paper got wind of the story. Competent and caring teachers, my ass.

By: NA

NA — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:31:55 +0000

I was hoping for the secret formula. What is happening there that other elementary schools should be doing? Something that has nothing to do with changing the population of a school that is. I need to know.

By: another aps teacher

another aps teacher — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:39:57 +0000

Don’t forget the fact that the system dropped the grade of “D” in the middle of the school year back in 2006-2007, and that for years have made teachers jump through hoops in order to award grades that accurately reflect a student’s classroom performance and mastery (or lack thereof) of the material. With student’s grades tied to teacher evaluations, teachers are afraid to give low grades. We still get student who cannot function on grade level.

By: Private School Guy

Private School Guy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:19:48 +0000

Ms. Hall forgot to credit the following for the success of APS:
The developers and housing officials who moved the poorest people in the city out to the surrounding suburbs.
The homeowners who gentrified run down neighborhoods and created a huge flow of taxes to the school system.
The thousands of people who live in the city and do not send their children to APS. This helps keep the attendance low and give the system administrators more money to play with.
More money, less students is the real formula for success at APS.

By: teacher mate

teacher mate — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:49:44 +0000

Problem is any gains mentioned by APS are called into question. With obvious cheating at some schools, the system’s results as a whole are also called into question. Given that the superintendent protested for so long about her system’s innocence and is being drug kicking and screaming to investigate the scandal, how can we believe her sincerity.
Besides the test scores that benefit the administration, I would bet many of the student’s grades were given based on helping them make the HOPE Scholarship and not on merit. It would be interesting to find out the drop out rates of APS students going on to college.
Granted the drop out rates for students as a whole are bad, but APS is probably somewhat higher. Same for the SAT or ACT. Assuming Atlanta didn’t have a way to cheat on them, one wonders how the supposed HOPE students from APS scored as a group.

By: catlady

catlady — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:17:49 +0000

LOL