Breaking news: Dr. Hall farewell message: CRCT probe of APS will show “alarming conclusions”
Beverly Hall has released a farewell video in which she cautions that the CRCT probe will show "some alarming conclusions." (AJC photo)
In a farewell video, APS school chief Beverly Hall cautions the 6,000 APS employees that the results of governor’s investigation into 2009 CRCT cheating in Atlanta schools are coming in the next few weeks and there will be “troubling, no some alarming conclusions.”
On the video, Hall says, “It’s become increasingly clear over the last year that a segment of our staff chose to violate the trust that was placed in them. And let me be clear, there is simply no excuse for unethical behavior and no room in this system for unethical conduct. I am confident that aggressive, swift action will be taken against anyone who believed so little in our students and in our system of support that they turned to dishonesty as the only option.”
Hall also cites the system’s gains in her tenure, including its improvement on NAEP scores. She reassures the teachers that their efforts have paid off for the 48,000 students in APS.
In preliminary 2011 CRCT results. Hall says APS students showed growth in four of the five core areas – reading, English/language arts, math and social studies — and held steady in science.
She also cited record scholarship dollars for Atlanta teens, including the generous Gates Millennium Scholarships that pay all costs of undergraduate and graduate school. Since 2009, Atlanta has produced more Gates Millennium scholars than any other district in the nation, says Hall
Hall ends the video farewell by saying she cherished her time in Atlanta and will hold the staff and students in her heart.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
145 comments Add your comment
justbrowsing
May 28th, 2011
8:00 am
I would think that she would allow the new superintendent to select the administrators for all vacant positions. That defeats the purpose if she does this before leaving them the opportunity to determine who is best for the job.
Johnny
May 28th, 2011
8:03 am
Lee… I am with you….why Dr. Hall has been allowed to stay is a mystery. At minimum, she allowed cheating to occur; she allowed a hostile environment to unmercifully punish those who sought to right the wrongs; she led the coverup; she allowed those who sought to undemine the state investigation to intimidate witnesses and flip off investigators. Any one of these justified her termination! And, she should return her national award received under false pretenses.
And BillM, you are so right. APS spends the most per student of any school system in the state — $14,000 per student! Second closest is 11,000 and change…throwing more money at the problem is not the answer. Finding dedicated teachers is.
Peace….
www.honeyfern.org
May 28th, 2011
8:17 am
I can’t believe the only thing happening to her is that she loses her job. This isn’t a farewell message; it is a “nanny-nanny, boo-boo,” can’t catch BHall, off she runs.
I think she should have been removed immediately and not allowed to make any other decisions in her capacity as superintendent. This calls into question every decision – hiring, fiscal, curricular, etc – that she has ever made, and I am so sorry for the students of APS who will continue to suffer, long after Hall is gone.
Not to ignite a chorus of boos, but BHall can take her test with her. It doesn’t shock me, when added to APS bonus structure, a.k.a. performance pay, that this happened, only that it took so long.
Write Your Board Members
May 28th, 2011
8:23 am
Wondering,
I wonder what percentage of NAEP improvement can be attributed to the shuttering of the projects in Atlanta and the shuffeling of those students off to Clayton and DeKalb. Given the decrease in poverty and the increase in non-minority students, I wonder if the the NAEP results in Atlanta are as meaningful as some would have us believe. While there is still significant poverty in ATL schools, I don’t think the kids are as poor as they were a decade ago.
Real winner of APS
May 28th, 2011
8:54 am
The Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) should take any credit for the rise in APS test scores…Atlanta does not serve the same population it did ten years ago.
I work for APS and it has been hell working for people like Hall, Augustine, Cotman, Davis-Williams and the rest of the thugs. Great timing Dr. Hall…off you go and we are left to clean-up your mess…take all your awards and bonuses and go away, very far away and take the blind 4 board members with you.
Joyce
May 28th, 2011
9:04 am
Right on “justbrowsing”! I am so thankful the public is waking up to the politics of educaiton. No, and it is not about the kids. Hall will probably try to stack the deck with her administrative choices for all admiinistrative openings. In doing so, the same old things can go on in the APS. Why not just flush the toilet and make sure this does not happen again. Everybody thought appointing supereintendents would solve all the problems in educaiton but it has not. We need to go back to electing our superintendents at large and electing our school boards as we have been doing. Elect them all. . At least, their would be someone who has no intentions of stirring up trouble to the magnitude of APS. Also, you need to realize that the APS School Board is the escape goat in the situation. And, by deflecting everything towards the school board it took the attention off of Ms.Hall. This is what all superintendents try to do and they are successful at it. When in reality the school board does not know anymore than what the superintendnet wants them to know. Unless the parents and teachers calls the board members an enlightens them on what is taking place. Many times a superintendent will forbid teachers and staff from calling board members. Well, to all you superinendents, guess what, when I passed the Post Office this morning Old Glory was still flying high. And, under their rights as citizens they have the right to call anyone they want too, just make sure (teachers.and staff) you do it on your own time and dime. And, I think back to the APS Superintendent (Hall), you need to take responsibility and fire those who cheated; and if you were the leading factor you need to resign now without anymore pay. You see when you flush the toilet– it means to FLUSH IT and LEAVE NO RESIDUE. NO NOT EVEN A SMALL PARTICLE of SCUM. This message is to the board..JUST FLUSH the TOILET! There are many educators seeking jobs and you will not have a problem filling them.
Joyce
May 28th, 2011
9:15 am
You see she split the board. That is another trick superintendents do in order to make school boards look bad. Dr. Hall goodbye and please take AMTRACK with all your awards. You talk about the scholarships awarded to graduates. I am glad they recieved them but I do not think you had anything to do with it. So do not take the credit. In fact, It would be great to know how many in Ga. applied for this scholarhip you have referred, too.
It awful, when administrators try to take credit for the hard work that students have done to excell. It is the teacher who has helped the student not the administrators. So Dr. Hall you and all the other administrators need to find some other source to get your applause, such as lowering school taxes, lowering your salaries, cutting your staff instead of teachers. In fact, how much of your salary did you have cut during all the furlough days, lay-off and/or RIFs. I know the answer is zero (0). This is happening all over the state. Superintendents need to sacrafice along with the teachers/staff.
Madison
May 28th, 2011
9:36 am
It’s not my fault…and now it’s not my problem. A true leader takes credit for both the good and bad….this individual only wants credit for the good. A true sign of accomplishment would be leaving APS in a better position than when you took over……it’s not. All of the “accomplishments” during your watch should have a * by them….based on what we now know. Just in case your not aware….you are responsible for all of the teachers and administrative employees that were involved in the cheating but I forgot…. it’s not your fault ……and…. it’s now ……not your problem.
Nikole
May 28th, 2011
9:49 am
@ Wondering—Hall is surely to blame. I’ve heard and read stories about teachers that tried to alert the system of cheating in their buildings and they were harassed and ostracized. Additionally, Hall claimed to be all about data, but refused to look at her data through an objective lens. There is no way that certain elementary schools could have shown astronomical improvements in one or two years. It’s IMPOSSIBLE! But instead of looking further into those schools herself, she accepted what were clearly unreliable results, in an effort to make herself look good. She should have been fired long ago.
catlady
May 28th, 2011
10:00 am
I hope she can be sued, and prosecuted, for the money she took under false pretenses! Perhaps also a class-action suit on behalf of all APS students for the way they were defrauded.
Note to all school boards, state and federal government: When you have someone claiming unbelieveable gains, DON’T BELIEVE IT! DON’T BE A SUCKER!
Ajax
May 28th, 2011
10:10 am
All I have to say is, what kind of leader of any organization shouldn’t be held accountable for the failures of that organization? Even if she had no direct hand in it, the failure to recruit and retain competent teachers and failure to communicate to her staff that any manipulation of the testing process would not be tolerated, are her failures. But leave it to a government school leader to have any sense of accountability.
Ajax
May 28th, 2011
10:11 am
what I meant to say was ZERO sense of accountability.
curt
May 28th, 2011
10:33 am
Once again corruption and incompetence are dismissed with excuses and smokescreens. “The dog ate my homework” pattern used by Atlanta , Dekalb and Clayton so often of late. Hopefully some of these losers will face jail time and fines, not just a big bonus for leaving.
APS Employee
May 28th, 2011
10:33 am
Whenever you tried to question data or test results, you were labeled as an employee that “didn’t believe black children could learn” and “you had low expectations” then you would be placed on a Professional Development Plan, received a low evaluation, had your job threatened and was investigate by some made up charge by the Office of Internal Resolution Dept.
It was like trying to be an honest accountant working for Enron…Do you know that this Administration is actually planning a leadership retreat in 2 weeks for hundreds of APS administrators for 3 days at the Emory Conference Center—the final day is a big Faerwell Luncheon Tribute to Bev Hall—guess how much that will cost???? Is this Gates money, chambers $ or APS taxpayers???? SHAME
DD
May 28th, 2011
10:41 am
It’s “Detroit-Ja-Vu all over again” wake up Atlanta and the country this is where big goverment takes you!
APS Employee
May 28th, 2011
11:07 am
The 3 day APS administrators conference June 7, 8, 9) is called “APS – A Legacy Moving Forward”…Ha what a legacy
It’s time for all honest APS employees to stand up and be heard…soon without the fear of retaliation–we can not allow for this to happen again—we can not allow for these dishonest employees – Executive Directors and 12 principals who have been paid full time while sitting in some cubical downtown to return and corrupt our new superintendents admin
Someone needs to let Harsch-Kanaye know that the reason we are in this mess is because she and her four didn’t do their job and just followed Hall and the chamber blindly
Kudos to the 5 for exposing the truth
APS EMPLOYEES SPEAK OUT NOW–BE HEARD
GrannyCares
May 28th, 2011
11:37 am
Dr. Hall should be held accountable for lack of supervision, leadership and investigation when the first hints of cheating were surfaced. As a result of a total lack of leadership from her office, she has :
*Brought Distrust of the APS system, not only in the state of Georgia, but throughout the nation.
*Cheated kids from a basic education.
*No doubt turned business away from the Atlanta area. (Who wants to bring families into such a mess?).
*Had a direct negative impact on value of homes in Atlanta.
*Set a pathetic example of integrity, values and high character for kids — not only in APS, but the surrounding area.
* and CHEATED THE TAX PAYERS.
Hall, and her cheating compatriots should GO TO JAIL TO SET AN EXAMPLE that cheating and fraud will not be tolerated in Georgia.
Dr. John Trotter
May 28th, 2011
11:54 am
Beverly Hall’s little taped video takes the cake, eh? It’s a crock! She can put sugar and whipped cream on crap, but it’s still crap. Beverly Hall’s reign of terror in the Atlanta Public Schools will be looked upon as the Dark Ages. Clayton County has now entered the Dark Ages with Edmond Heatley. I have written fairly extensively on both of these superintendents.
http://georgiateachersspeakout.wordpress.com/
http://theteachersadvocate.com/
fred
May 28th, 2011
11:54 am
that’s what the school system gets for hiring a black woman.
bootney farnsworth
May 28th, 2011
11:58 am
Andre? come down from the ledge Andre.
bootney farnsworth
May 28th, 2011
12:00 pm
only thing suprising here is that she fessed up in any way at all.
even if it was to blame everyone but herself.
smarter crooks know to deny everything
catlady
May 28th, 2011
12:02 pm
No, fred, that’s what the system gets for hiring someone with claims too good to be true. No intelligence to examine the claims, or too lazy to—which one was it?
Unfortunately we have others in positions of power (in the state or nationally) with the same sorts of claims and they are promoted and put in charge of things and we are expected to swallow it hook, line, and sinker!
bootney farnsworth
May 28th, 2011
12:05 pm
as long as the Atlanta power structure is more concerned about promoting race over promoting achievement, same crap different day.
can a black person run APS with sincerity, intergrity, and a genuine
desire to see kids succeed? absolutely.
will Atlanta hire them? hell no.
bootney farnsworth
May 28th, 2011
12:08 pm
@ APS employee:
good idea to speak out – but suicidal in nature.
I’ve seen firsthand what happens when you try to speak
out. you’re labled a malcontent, a troublemaker. your
evalutations suddenly go in the toilet. colleagues keep
away for fear of being hit by the splatter.
crap assignments start flooding your way. the whisper campaign
kicks in. if you handle money, your every transcation becomes
scrutinized.
than they get nasty.
bootney farnsworth
May 28th, 2011
12:13 pm
imagine what we could achieve if Georgia cared 1/8th as much about
education as it does Bulldogs football.
Mr Charlie
May 28th, 2011
12:25 pm
First Clayton Schools, then Dekalb and Atlanta…Obviously the system is racist, cause it don’t make no sense for all these majority black educational systems to bees having problems.
catlady
May 28th, 2011
12:41 pm
Y,know, the alarming conclusion is really THIS: Teachers are constantly told to sacrifice “for the good of the students,” yet here it is, BOLDLY. She (and others) used the children, the sacrifices of the teachers, to enrich herself. For her own-self service and glorification, the perfidy was encouraged and covered up. That the board could never admit its mistake and fire the woman, when all the evidence was against her is part of the evilness of this. And that she would then face her accusers with the racism card, and, in the end, blame again the teachers instead of taking responsibility herself for the corruption she instigated (directly or indirectly) and refused to own up to when confronted multiple times.
The most alarming part of all is that the school board (and many others) will continue to follow “false gods” who promise the moon, and who will do anything to promote themselves at the expense of others.
Sk8ing Momma
May 28th, 2011
12:53 pm
Dr. Hall’s comment is despicable. What is *more* deplorable is that parents and voters appear to tolerate such incompetency in the City of Atlanta. IMO, the buck stops with parents when it comes to their children’s education and the representatives it chooses for their school board. In the end, parents will have to give an accounting for the quality of education their children did or did not receive. Parents: Rise up, get involved, be proactive, demand excellence and take responsibility for your school system.
jsmtih
May 28th, 2011
1:01 pm
what you have here is unqualified people running the city of atlanta hiring unqualified people to run the schools. all it would take is a person with half a brain to fix the city of atlanta and the school system. that will never happen because the people who elect the people that run the city of atlanta are the biggest idiots of them all, therefore they get what they deserve and everyone else associated with atlanta suffers
Bob in Alpharetta
May 28th, 2011
1:22 pm
Super Hall would like us to believe that she learned of results/findings during the past month? Nonsense. She orchestrated all from tops down – and will be swept up in charges / incriminations as underlings realize she has collected bonuses totalling hundreds of thousands annually, and is now hoping to hang those with erasers in their hands out-to-dry. She should forfeit all bonus monies for score growth achievement; be held fully accountable as CEC (chief executive cheat); and prepare now for her long overdue perp walk.
Hamlet
May 28th, 2011
2:16 pm
Who made the decision to hire this idiot? Those people need to be held accountable for the mess in which APS finds itself. This farewell address appears to be for no other purpose than to distance herself from the ten year train wreck that occurred under her watch, but her attempt to do that reflects as much incompetence as does her time at the helm of APS . Hopefully, the ongoing investigation will put her behind bars where she belongs.
Bino
May 28th, 2011
2:18 pm
from Scholastic.com (February 20, 2009)…..San Francisco, Calif. – Beverly Hall, superintendent of Atlanta, Ga., Public Schools since 1999, has been named the 2009 National Superintendent of the Year….”Beverly Hall is an outstanding superintendent whose leadership has turned Atlanta into a model of urban school reform,’ said AASA Executive Director Dan Domenech. “Throughout her long and successful tenure in Atlanta, Hall has accomplished significant gains in student achievement. She has demonstrated a commitment to setting high standards for students and school personnel, working collaboratively with the school board, and meeting the needs of the local community. AASA is proud to bestow this national honor on Hall.”…The national Superintendent of the Year finalists are measured against the following criteria:
Leadership for learning – creativity in successfully meeting the needs of students in his or her school system.
Communication – strength in both personal and organizational communication.
Professionalism – constant improvement of administrative knowledge and skills, while providing professional development opportunities and motivation to others on the education team.
Community involvement – active participation in local community activities and an understanding of regional, national and international issues……
Thank you Ms. Hall, Atlanta School Board and all those concerned business leaders, parents and citizens throughout Atlanta who have made the education of our children a top priority. How sad; how very, very sad!
WorkinOnTheChainGang
May 28th, 2011
2:26 pm
The fact that she is now doing interviews accompanied by a criminal defense attorney suggests that the focus has shifted to keeping her sorry fat ass out of prison.
The State and the Feds both probably have her in their crosshairs. The real question is whether any jury of Atlanta residents would ever convict her.
ted
May 28th, 2011
2:39 pm
APS slogan that should go on every HS dioploma they give to the sub par students they are churning out into our fine city: “Barbecue, watermelon, Cadillac car…we ain’t as dumb as you think we is!”
whatever
May 28th, 2011
2:40 pm
Arrest Dr. Hall now! Her Alma Mater should also rescind her doctorate degree.
Revolution is Brewing!!!!!
May 28th, 2011
2:48 pm
Nothing short of Jesus could bring APS into getting the help it needed. Its a mess. Dekalb is a joke, Atlanta is a joke. What happened is alot of black folk got to the top and said now that we have got our piece of the pie were gonna screw everybody below us and not only that continue to rank in the federal dollars unchecked. Guess what Beverly Hall should be waterboarded till hell freezes over because of how bad our Metro Atlanta education has fallen. Ten years to do the crime and 20 to do the time(Here is hoping)! I am wishing for child endagerment should be her charges! Same goes to anyone who is destroying future generations in the way of politics. String em up. Of course George Carlin had it right when he said Education will never get better!
MrLiberty
May 28th, 2011
2:59 pm
Alarming conclusions and still nobody will care and parents will continue to demand that the government raise them, educate them, and be responsible for them. Nearly no parents will pull their children from the government school system and even fewer will demand an end to government control of education. And nothing will change.
MM
May 28th, 2011
3:05 pm
@ former,
Your criticism of Maureen for her APS reporting on Hall is unfortunately true. She has consistently softened the needed punch as is the custom in a town afraid of power (after all, CAP and other civic orgs turned a blind eye or actively abetted the coverup). HOWEVER, in the reference frame that passes for honest reporting in Atlanta, she and the AJC did not do too badly on this one. Compared to the softball reporting I’ve witnessed in Atlanta for decades, this was comparatively courageous. After all, Maureen has to work in this town we we readers have gone back to fly-swatting or whatever else it is we do in our slack time.
Although my words are seemingly damning Maureen and the AJC with faint praise I am not (seriously). We, as readers, need to admit they moved the rock and took some chances doing so. Thanks!
Also, reading some of the other posts here it may be worth noting the final shoe has not fallen on the criminal side of this. Finally, APS should be on the hook to give back the fraudulently won grant monies to the Feds and even private grantors (Gates, etc.). Beverly, and anyone found guilty of perpetuating this scheme, should have their future wages garnished and bank accounts and other assets siezed just like Khadafy. Unlike my local mugger on the street, this whitecollar stuff is judged by a disserent set of rules.
Mr Charlie
May 28th, 2011
3:20 pm
I think this is what Cynthia Tucker means when she talks about the browning of America.
Uh-oh!
May 28th, 2011
3:54 pm
Georgia is such a joke. Glad I got the hell out.
Casandra Johnson
May 28th, 2011
4:44 pm
Where was Dr. Hall’s oversight during the cheating scandal? She was right there, leading and directing her employees. For this reason, she should accept full responsibility for what happened and be held accountable!
As a parent of a former APS student, I know all too well the tactics used by school district officials, including Dr. Hall and her direct reports, who intentionally set out to destroy the lives of the very students they were hired and entrusted to educate. This very same group tried to destroy my daughter last school year because we fought back and exposed wrong doing and the incompetence of officials at the highest levels of the school district who did not even understand their own policies and even violated federal laws. My parting words to Dr. Hall and her team was nothing good would happen for APS until they did right by the children that they have been entrusted to educate.
What we are now witnessing is the fall out of a regime that enforced tactics of fear, intimidation, and retaliation against any one who stood up to them and refused to go along with their wrong doing. For employees who went against the grain, it was their jobs that were at stake. For my daughter, it was the once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in her high school graduation, which was unjustly taken away from her just days before the ceremony and came after she had already received notification from school officials that she would graduate with distinct honors. To make matters worst, they turned around and withheld her cap and gown that we paid for and then turned around and gave it to another student without our prior consent, which is outright stealing! Even after this devastating ordeal, APS officials continued in a concerted effort to retaliate against us because we stood up to them. They did so by refusing to release key documents and information about rulings pertaining to my daughter, as well as her graduation credentials which she rightfully earned, even after Dr. Hall and her staff had been directed by officials from the Georgia State Department of Education to release my daughter‘s credentials. In turn, the delay resulted in my daughter losing a 4 year scholarship and she also was not able to attend the schools of her initial choice because she did not have her final transcript in time, however she had already met all of the prescribed requirements for graduation. In spite of it all, my daughter still persevered and went on to another college anyway which is in fact an excellent school. Strangely enough though, we have received several calls over the past eight months from APS officials asking whether my daughter was still enrolled in college, which lets me know that they have very low expectations for their students and thought that what happened would cause her to give up. The answer is YES my daughter is still in college, and what the devil meant for evil, God has turned it around for her good.
What’s interesting is from the time my daughter left the halls of Benjamin E. Mays High School in May 2010, she never had to complete another class, assignment or test, nor did she have to attend summer school, but she was still denied that which she was entitled to, which was the privilege of graduation with her peers on May 24, 2010. The final decision to allow y daughter to walk across the stage rested with Dr. Hall and every bit of information that she had available to her absolutely supported the fact that my daughter was in fact entitled to graduation and should have been allowed to do so. After a long, hard battle, which included going before the school board to make public that which school district officials tried to conceal, my daughter’s graduation credentials were finally released, however it was reduced to being mailed to us in an envelope several months after the fact with no form of apology from Dr Hall and her staff to accept responsibility for their actions, Instead, the once in a lifetime opportunity for my daughter to walk across the stage with her peers for graduation was stolen by Dr. Hall herself.
Dr. Hall, you and anyone who went along with your agenda should be ashamed of yourselves because it appears that it was never really about the children for you all It’s my opinion that every APS official who had any type of direct or indirect involvement in any type of wrong doing needs to be held accountable, including criminal prosecution, and also be banned from ever working for any other school district! What also disturbs me is when I contacted various Atlanta officials, including Mayor Reed and the media, to report what happened to my daughter and our findings of wrongdoing at the highest levels of the school district, hardly anyone in Atlanta wanted to get involved, but now it seems as if everyone is scurrying around and concerned about the students and the city’s image-give me a break! What we are now seeing is that which they have done to one, they have also done to many others. It’s just a mess and the tragedy of it is thousands of children, primarily African-American, are still being slaughtered in the city of Atlanta, but now it’s being done by the very people who have been entrusted to educate them.
Dr. John Trotter
May 28th, 2011
4:46 pm
@ Bino: I know what you mean. I read last night on the internet where former Chairperson of the Clayton County Board of Education, Ericka Davis, was singing the praises of Beverly Hall. Man, ole Hall had a lot of folks snookered — naive folk like Ericka Davis. From the Jump Street, I had her number, although I tried to be polite and even though I spoke to the Atlanta School Board on the first day that Hall arrived in the Summer of 1999. I started off: “Dr. Hall, Welcome to Bosnia. Welcome to North Korea. Welcome to North Korea.” I went on to say that although Atlanta was located in Georgia and that the laws of the States are made right up the street, Atlanta still thought that it was a kingdom unto itself. I urged her to be different. She was different O. K! She was worse than her predecessors!
The 1999 issue of The Teacher’s Advocate! magazine which contains the aforementioned article on its front page can be retrieved from the Archives section of the MACE website >>>
http://www.theteachersadvocate.com
I wasn’t wrong, was I? Ha!
Dekalbite
May 28th, 2011
4:47 pm
Didn’t Beverly Hall earn bonuses for raising test scores to meet AYP goals? Why is she not being asked to give back those thousand of dollars since the progress was not real but rather based on cheating?
chillywilly
May 28th, 2011
6:29 pm
The only video of Dr. Beverly Hall that I’m interested in watching is one where she’s wearing an orange jumpsuit and leg irons.
APS Parent #2
May 28th, 2011
6:56 pm
What Hall wants, Step Up group advocates for with very biased postings that well meaning but lazy parents (who themselves won’t come down to 130 Trinity) and judge for themselves. So like the IT reorganization that Hall and staff tried to push through with only a few weeks left in their contracts, expect Hall & company to rearrange more deck chairs on the APS Titanic before they leave.
If the 5 board members who have the sense on the board don’t blindly vote for whatever Hall & company wants, then expect more petitions from the Buckhead blondes who drive luxury vehicles and who didn’t care a whit about our schools south of I-20 until they realized no one would take them seriously if they didn’t have real black parents in their leadership of their Step Up group.
These parents only care about their husbands getting every last $ from the APS business machine before Hall leaves. They are all breathing a sigh of relief because they successfully bullied the board into a leadership change where one of their cronies businessman Reuben McDaniels can take up the baton that’s been on hold since Butler-Burks was voted out. From all outward appearances, they are working closely with the Mayor and the business community.
The cover-up works nicely when APS leadership has the help of the business community and a few very attractive and articulate parents….none of whom care for the poor, low achieving kids whose only hope up is public education.
I have to agree with the other posters Ms. Downey. You have somewhat dropped the hall for the majority of students, staff, teachers and parents in APS. Your columns have given space for free that should have required payment as an op ed advertisement. Now that Hall admits there is cheating, maybe you’ll try to stay out of ABE politics and focus on issues that are robbing kids of an education. Or if you get involved, please support those who are working for the kids first and foremost.
APS Parent #2
May 28th, 2011
7:18 pm
@CassandraJohnson, your story would sound fictional if it wasn’t about Hall.
You sound like a great parent to keep your daughter moving toward her dreams and future despite the antics of Hall.
I would wish you luck, but when you have talent like your daughter, then luck isn’t what got her where she is. How about congratulations!
Just an APS teacher
May 28th, 2011
8:39 pm
It is refreshing to know that Dr. Hall is leaving. This administrator is not worth any accolades she received. She should have investigated any jump in test scores in the beginning. I know a place in an APS high school where 100% of the students passed certain EOCT exams. 15% cannot read. So what do the test results prove? They can’t write and they can’t think. It is a shame what people are doing to our children.
Dr. Hall,
If our children were making so many improvements, they would graduate from college and technical schools and have better jobs, right? Where do you see that in Atlanta over the last 12 years? Where are the new young Black entrepreneurs with innovative ideas and creating jobs for others? Are APS graduates in “Teach for America?”. Those college grads don’t come from APS? Are they in medical school or do they mostly have low end jobs or no jobs? The Construction people are not Americans. Where are the majority of those so called “improved” students you graduated Dr. Hall? Unfortunately, their applications didn’t have standardized test questions so they filled them out with their bad grammar and writing that did not improve.
We are not educating our children. They want to be entertained. They won’t read anything and the administrators are super sorry. There are high schools where the students can’t read or calculate the tax on a purchase but they are graduating from APS. Go figure.
Dr. Hall’s administration is filling open positions with their cronies not the people who are qualified. What a mess! How can taxpayers stand for this mess?
APS Parent #2
May 28th, 2011
8:55 pm
@just, taking your discussion to the high school standardized testing should scare the bejesus out of even the white parents. SACS doesn’t accredit the elementary and middle schools where the CRCT cheating occurred, so this was not a SACS’ trigger – high school EOCT tests should be.
If Hall has been in place 12 years, then her cheaters have been there with these students every step of their way except kindergarten. They may think they know a thing or two, but who knows given the way tests are altered in APS. It will be a sad day for some of these students when they leave APS and find out how shoddy their education really is.
Parents who can find a way should hightail it to private school or a suburban district not under fire if there is one.
APS Parent #2
May 28th, 2011
8:57 pm
I forgot to add they should hightail it before the state adds EOCT to its list to investigate. SACS then will have a real reason to be meddling with APS and not this cranked up reason created by the business community to force a board leadership change and deflect negative press from Hall.
There are real reasons in APS that should cause APS to be on probation….if they were serious and unbiased about the work they claim to be doing.
Top School
May 28th, 2011
9:31 pm
I spent $150,000 challenging this criminal and her minions. 7 years in depositions and court issues only to see it dismissed with the help of Buckhead’s connected folk.
http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com
Every journalist and whistleblower reporter in Atlanta turned a blind eye to what I was saying since it involved Buckhead’s Top APS Elementary School.
Shame on the Atlanta’s most educated community allowing this corruption to be escorted so gracefully from the public schools they fund with their tax money.
What example have you set for your children? Lie, Cheat, and fill your pockets full as you bow out with a smile on your face…Shame Shame Shame on those that have allowed this corruption to take this long without consequences…Shame on those knowing the politics involved.
No teacher should ever be subjected to the retaliation I endured as a result of the internal secrets of corrupt APS leadership.
Disgraceful…and it continues every time the AJC allows these criminals to have a headline in the news to attempt to cover-up all the mess.
Dig deeper …this is just the surface…
Shame on ALL THOSE INVOLVED.