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
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145 comments Add your comment
Dr. John Trotter
May 28th, 2011
9:43 pm
More on the three biggest educational hypocrites in Georgia, Atlanta’s Beverly Hall, DeKalb’s Crawford Lewis, and SACS’s Mark Elgart…
http://georgiateachersspeakout.wordpress.com/
Two down and one to go. I have been calling these three phonies “Georgia’s three biggest educational hypocrites” for years and while Lewis, Hall, and Elgart were safely ensconced in their positions. I was right again, right?! Ha! The ole Southside Svenghali knows a bit or two about what goes on in the public schooling process. I sort of miss the days when the AJC Editorial Board used to call me a Dime Store Demagogue, a Svenghali, and everything else but a white boy. A columnist in the Clayton News/Daily even said that I had “hypnotic powers.” Ha! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Boo!
Top School
May 28th, 2011
9:44 pm
I support public education
May 28th, 2011
2:08 am
What you’ve said does not excuse what happened…
Holding leaders accountable for honest, integrity and ethics is not asking too much.
Turning a blind eye and blaming it on the excuse that everything and everyone else is corrupt…does not explain why HALL has been allowed to finish her contract…get paid…and given the stage to make an exit speech.
And a retirement party…too???
What a class-less act…and the Buckhead Business Community has joined the cesspool.
Casandra Johnson
May 28th, 2011
10:22 pm
@APS Parent #2 – Thanks and it was certainly our faith in the One, True and Living God that kept us and gave us the strength to keep going! God help Dr. Hall’s soul and everyone that willfully participated in her agenda.
Awaiting moderation
May 28th, 2011
11:24 pm
@Top School—not only has she been allowed to finish her contract, Hall, Augustine,Pitts Cotman, Davis-Williams, etc have continued to receive bonus pay while all other APS employees have been on a salary freeze and lost paid work days for the last few years. Bonus money off the backs of our students that was collected as a result of tampered test scores.
Did you hear anything returning this unearned money? New Superintendent CLEAN HOUSE
The Parent Advocate
May 29th, 2011
10:56 am
The disdain that we should feel for the continuous failure of the Atlanta Public Schools System is criminal. As a parent in APS, I struggle everyday with the low aim that APS has amidst the focus on the testing, I directly blame the leadership for not setting a tone of excellence in APS. Starting from the Board, and of course the entire senior cabinet lead by the notorious Beverly Hall and Kathy Augustine they are the mafiosa the grand dames of APS and what they say goes. Having high stakes tests are certainly factors in the pressure, however when we compare schools in APS, north to south, you will see a lot of emphasis on many achievements, the test being just one. The day before the CRCT test this year my daughter who attends a midtown school was doing projects and preparing to dissect, my son who attends a school south of downtown was being constantly drilled on CRCT, being taken out of connections classes, literally shutting down the entire school except for CRCT prep; And immediately after the test that same daughter continued work, projects and homework up until the end of school, my son’s school on the other hand played games, watched movies and had no homework from that time until the end of school. Tell me that is not criminal and these are the same schools who were on the serious list for cheating. Give me a break! Those nearly 6,000 children who were given 12-weeks to help them overcome what could be years of deficiencies was a joke. and the children in NW and SW Atlanta are the ones being laughed at as the mayor, the business community and in many instances the faith-community have turned their backs on these children by using bully and smoke screen tactics to distract. Is the mayor in it with those who benefit from prison labor? Has the mayor sold his soul for the lives of 1000’s of children in APS? We have to ask ourselves 5 people on the Board FINALLY had the courage to stand up for what was right, where would could have gotten rid of Dr. Hall sooner and less expensive. Those five people could not stand up to the resources, money and influences others had. What a shame on Atlanta that we did not support the efforts of a few to stand up. We should be ashamed of ourselves to blog about these issues, when only a few of us stood up for the children, the Board’s so-called “gang of five” and against those who did not want to see justice at their expense done. I feel sorry for the future of these children, and I feel sorry for the amount of apathy we have out here!
cheating
May 29th, 2011
10:58 am
hall knew nothing, nothing at all about any cheating, at any time. and she means it!
Dr. John Trotter
May 29th, 2011
11:43 am
Beverly Hall…one of the three biggest Educational Hypocrites in Georgia >>>
http://georgiateachersspeakout.wordpress.com/
Mr Charlie
May 29th, 2011
12:11 pm
John Trotter, you are an effect of the incompetence of the black school system establishment. You are like barnacles to a ship, like mold to dampness. You are no visionary, or Svengali, you are a roach in a dirty kitchen.
failure
May 29th, 2011
12:38 pm
aps—rotten to the core from the top down. These “administrators” should be in jail for fraud and negligence, but due to their power in the establishment, they keep their high paying jobs and obscene pensions, while the schools stay bad. congrats!
APS Parent #2
May 29th, 2011
1:04 pm
@cheating. Hall is the CEO; she was paid big bucks to do that job; she put the structure and key leadership in place; she won awards and was happy to take ALL of the acclaim including any monetary awards when we all thought the APS data was accurate.
The buck stops at the top and that is with Hall. If she didn’t know anything about the cheating then she must have checked out of her job long ago. Doesn’t matter though. This occurred on her watch and under LaChandra Butler-Burks & Cecelia Harsh-Kinnane’s leadership. They bear the blame and shame for robbing the children of APS of their futures. The truth started coming out under the leadership posted by the 5 and El.
@sandra points out that there is one true God. She is right. Any who have helped cheat, cover up the cheating, or redefined a new issue (board leadership) in order to deflect public attention for this crime going on downtown near our state capitol and the birthplace of our Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr will have to stand judgement before Him one day. God will know who did right by ALL the children and not just the few. Hopefully before then, the state will sit in judgement here on earth for these crimes.
May God’s mercy and grace be with the students, staff, teachers, parents and “the 5″ board members who have tried to work for the children despite the concerted efforts of the Atlanta Education Fund, the Blue Ribbon Commission, the business community, the StepUp gang from the Northside who said cheating wasn’t an issue (sure they will now make it their issue now so they can define it for all of Atlanta to help the business cimmunity and the lackey Dr Hall out).
History will show the truth. Ms. Downey, where will your columns and focus show God your heart has been? You have many followers. Why not direct them to the path of truth and light?
HLS
May 29th, 2011
1:14 pm
THE biggest hypocrite in Georgia is John Trotter – he portents to be all about – the kids and education – he is only about those in MACE and his own pockets and ego. Hindsight is 20/20 and anyone can be a Monday morning quarterback with the B. Hall situation.
The group in Clayton has regained accredited schools – no thanks to MACE and J. Trotter – who all but drove the truck straight to the loss of accreditation- but it is regained thru a lot of hard work by Superintendent Edmond Heatley and his administrators – the entire 9 member BOE – the parents and citizens of Clayton County. The people who work toward the building up of our students and our region, not the destructive practices of the self-proclaimed expert that keeps rearing his snake eyes from beneath the proverbial rock, to make comments on his self-perceived accomplishments and his miraculous talent of clairvoyance.
To bad – there are some teachers that do not understand economics – with the change and influx of the past 15 years – the resulting depreciation of homes – compounded by the recession of the past 3 years, has not left the school system with the money it had even 5 years ago. These are the ones who seek refuge with the great charlatan.
Goodbye teaching
May 29th, 2011
1:22 pm
Do not give any credit to Heatley. He is no leader, and his days are numbered.
8040two
May 29th, 2011
1:39 pm
Former Governor Lester Maddox once said: ” We are not going to get better prisons, until we get a better class of prisoners.” The same can be said about inner city schools all over the US. Blacks in this country need to start making progress, and not excuses. Noblesse oblige, the white man’s burden.
jimmie
May 29th, 2011
1:41 pm
here here 8040
Clancy
May 29th, 2011
1:51 pm
So, let me get this straight: From Saturday’s AJC front page quote from Ms. Hall:
“Staff chose to violate the trust…in them to help pupils pass CRCT.”
She and staff believed that by cheating on behalf of students the students were passing the CRCT?
She claims to have a Ph D? From where? Cracker Jack U?
How could any alleged educated person believe that?
These kids get through the 12 years of “education”, yet they can not read well; they can not speak proper English; they can not do simple math in their head, nor on paper; they can not write a simple paper on a common subject, and more?
Oh but, they CAN do computer games!
What APS has produced is a whole sub-culture of victims of a school systems run by incompetents.
The high schools produce kids who somehow get into college and have to go through a year or more of “remedial classes”.
Hall and her staff believe this is education?
God help our society.
Gail Churchill
May 29th, 2011
2:06 pm
How ironic that articles about cheating in public schools and the recent immigration bill appeared on the front page of the Saturday paper.
What is truth?
Now even Beverly Hall admits the truth.
Joanna M. Adams wrote the truth about the immigration bill in the Pro & Con column of the AJC earlier in May. I suspect Governor Deal will discover that the immigration bill was a mistake. He and all lawmakers should recognize this truth and repeal it when the General Assembly meets in August. I have contacted my representative and urge you to do the same.
Atlanta Education, Politics and Business
May 29th, 2011
2:46 pm
APS has done just what the business community needed in two nice steps:
Step #1: Provided several million dollars worth of contracts to the business community under the auspicies of education. Their real focus is about getting the contracts (no different than the airport contracts or any other government contract). If education happens in the process – great!! If not, then the business community has a pr engine that can snap into place and put a spin on the news so that it has a different focus.
Step #2: Provided the city of Atlanta with an underclass of citizens who do not have the educational skills to make it through college and/or find gainful employment that will allow a family to survive on without government assistance. Those among this group who would have been gainfully employed business entrepreneurs if they had been fully educated by APS, turn their natural talents and skills to street crimes (drugs, child-trafficking, prostitution, robbery, etc.) where they earn lots of untaxable income. The greater number among this group who do not have this type of talent end up in prison thus allowing the business community to make money on a new set of government contracts – the contracts to build and supply the prisons.
Public education should be about education. It isn’t. It is about government contracts.
Regular citizens asleep at the switch can’t complain on down the road about the quality of life in Atlanta because they missed the boat on the true nature of the quality of public education afforded to the students in the metro area.
Dr. Hall brought her New Jersey machine to Atlanta and reminded the deep south of what the carpetbaggers did to our city after the Civil War. If something seems too good to be true.
PS – Dr. Hall’s still trying to take credit for gains over her tenure. If the data is suspect, she’s left no credible way to measure anything, particularly academic progress.
KiaraB
May 29th, 2011
3:05 pm
Hi HLS, I certainly respect your opinion on CCPS. But… please note that the fact that CCPS (we) gained accreditation has little to do with Superintendent Dr. Edmond Heatley as this was a work in progress before he took reign. Honestly, Ed is not very BRIGHT at all. The fact that we gained accreditation rests on the back on the people who are on the front lines every day….teachers, administrators, students, and the community. The fact that we got accreditation is no surprise to any of us as Brock’s law firm represents CCPS. Remember, Brock was a part of the decision to initially strip accreditation from CCPS.
In addition, I think that teachers understand economics quite well as they know that Dr. Heatley recently accepted a $30,000 bonus and is set to received additional bonus soon while cutting into their pockets and stuffing his own.
Maybe you should talk with Dr. Heatley or maybe you are Dr. Heatley….or one of his cronies… How little of him…really how “little” of him as he is anti-teacher as one can get…If he had the best interest of the school system at heart, he would have never taken this money…And if a survey was rendered to teachers in the county, I can assure you that at least 90% want him GONE! I pray that the federal judge side with teachers next week and send a clear message to Dr. Heatley and that he never gets another chance to ruin another school system. HEATLEY MUST GO!!!. HEATLEY MUST GO!!!. HEATLEY MUST GO!!!.
lisa1211
May 29th, 2011
3:23 pm
Hi Jimmie, I agree with you and I am a black woman who works in CCPS. At least when Dan Colwell was CCPS’s superintendent, he knew how to treat employees and there was a surplus of money. When black folks (superintendents) took over, all the money evaporated and it has been a complete nightmare. I am not saying that Dan Colwell did not have his flaws as we all do…but they certainly do not compare to the idiots we have had after him, including Dr. Edmond Heatley who is clearly suffering from the “Napoleon Syndrome” as evident by the high heel boots he often wears. I also agree with Trotter (which I never do) as Dr. Heatley should not have been hired as he is in over his head.
Dr. Sam King is truly the ONE last hope and this brother is truly phenomenal… and is by far…THE EXCEPTION… And if he had been superintendent of CCPS, we would have a much different story.
Atlanta Education, Politics and Business
May 29th, 2011
4:16 pm
Interesting last comments.
Perhaps if the systems took more input from below the top tier public school leadership (out in the field versus in the district office), maybe the public would have a truer and more accurate picture of the health of their public school system.
You’ll need to allow them to speak in private because all of these systems seem to have a well-oiled method in place to silence the whistleblowers despite claims to the contrary.
APS Parent #2
May 29th, 2011
5:38 pm
Wonder if there is any relation between the timing of Dr. Hall’s farewell message with news of “alarming outcomes” and the force-out of El from ABE leadership role?
The state report was supposed to be done back in March. I heard from a friend at the capitol that they were going to delay release until after Dr. Hall left because the Atlanta business community had requested it. (Who contributes the most to politcal compaigns? Big business – made sense to me.)
Now that big business has successfully confused the issues and played Big Bully, the board will change leadership again. Perhaps, this leadership isn’t their dream team, but at least it includes one of their slicker and more articulate team members, Reuben McDaniels. Isn’t he also a board member of the Atlanta Education Fund?
Skull and crossbones – Atlanta has it’s own version. They eat dinner at the Piedmont Driving Club and the Capitol City Club and Jack & Jill alumni are there to do their dirty work.
tim
May 29th, 2011
6:47 pm
Bye Bye Bev Cupcake….d please take Maureen with you!
Chris Murphy, Atlanta, GA
May 29th, 2011
7:52 pm
To any of you that think “the 5″ are some kind of positive force: just what have they ever- EVER- done, individually or collectively to advance education in APS? When have any of them EVER fulfilled their main elected duty- to oversee the administration of APS? “The (other) 4″ were, and are, similarly useless, but “the 5″ only raised their voices when they realized that the whitewash investigation (i.e., the “Blue Ribbon” panel) was about to get tsunamiied by the state. Still- did they question Hall, her methods, her figures, her personnel? NEVER have they raised ANY objection to what Hall and her administration has done; indeed, they still claim that “significant” progress has been made in the last 12 years. Well, here’s a fact: before Hall came, 45% of APS students graduated HS; now, 42% do (and that is the number of graduates in a class/the number in the class as freshmen, a truer measure than Hall uses). Where’s the progress? Indeed, where’s the oversight? What, none of them can do as I did and use the state figures to dispute Hall’s BS??
Chris Murphy, Atlanta, GA
May 29th, 2011
8:02 pm
The AJC is to be applauded for the role it has played. This paper is the one that brought to light the two (2) E-Rate scandals, the phony graduation numbers, the “lost” students, the CRCT cheating, not employees, not parents nor citizens. The AJC took that on while being called racist, while being called a tool of the Chamber of Commerce, while losing revenue in the internet age- it brought its resources to bear. Maureen has a fine blog here; many details that don’t fit into an investigative story has come out here, through her or sources that will post here. I know I’ve learned a lot as a citizen and a parent, and am grateful for this space. If Maureen can be faulted a la Hall, it is that she has given the superintendent every benefit of the doubt; many of us have either been quick to be cynical, or similarly defensively supportive of APS and its personalities. Regardless, Maureen has been part of the team that has kept the problems alive in discourse, and for that she has my thanks, no matter her personal or professional opinion of Hall and APS.
justbrowsing
May 29th, 2011
8:41 pm
Well said Chris and I echo your sentiments!!!
Dr. John Trotter
May 29th, 2011
8:43 pm
Well, the Southside Svenghali has returned…yes, the Clayton Rasputin that predicted that Edmond Heatley would be a disaster. Ha! I was right again, right? Right? Just like I was on Barbara Pulliam. Yep, the ole Clayco school board is too stubborn to admit its grave error in judgment and to get rid of the clown, Edmond Heatley. I didn’t have him on my original Educational Hypocrites list for Georgia…because he was apparently messing up Chino Valley, California at the time. And, how can we call him a “hypocrite”? No one is buying his crap. Now for a long time, people were buying Crawford Lewis’s crap, Beverly Hall’s crap, and Mark Elgart’s crap. All three were and are selling educational crap. Two down, one to go. Ha!
Oh, my good friend, HLS (does this stand for “Heatley Loves Suckas”?), jealousy is indeed a powerful emotion. I have warned you about this jealousy and bitterness, didn’t I? Oh yes, I was right on Crawford Lewis and Beverly Hall too, right? I yelled from the metaphorical mountaintop for years that they were educational snake oil sales folk. So is Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, and Mark Elgart. Don’t you hate it when I am always right? Ha!
KiaraB, you are right. SACS accreditation was a done deal. In my opinion, the whole game with accreditation is about control, who is going to get the school board attorney contract, sell insurance to the teachers and so forth. It’s about money. Clayton County was and still is in about the same shape as other urban school systems throughout the South…where SACS operates. It was simply about control. Brock apparently got mad as hell when the school board inexplicably hired the John Thompson fellow. I think that Brock felt that his plate would be taken away. He proceeded to go forth and trash his [former] client, the Clayton County Board of Education, all in the media. Hmm. I don’t think that lawyers are able to do this. If a lawyer was defending a man charged with murder, and the lawyer is no longer the accused murderer’s lawyer, can the lawyer then get on TV and trash the former client, saying, “He should fry!”? I don’t think so. I have a major article on Glenn Brock and his law firm coming out soon. You don’t want to miss it! And, HLS (Heatley Loves Suckas?), I think that I’m right on him too. Ha!
http://georgiateachersspeakout.wordpress.com/
justbrowsing
May 29th, 2011
8:53 pm
Many use that position for status reasons- very little business as it relates to children is addressed – seems the APS board took a business as usual, don’t rock the boat approach. That attitude and those politics stymie any real progress the school district could have made. If only someone on the board would have been either intelligent enough, or, bold enough (or both) to bring these issues out in the open years before…..
James
May 29th, 2011
9:18 pm
I love Atlanta Public Schools the school system will bounce back I know it will.
Nupeman
May 29th, 2011
9:35 pm
Pssssssssst Trotter, Sam King is a Kappa too….
MiltonMan
May 29th, 2011
9:45 pm
Great the APS will only replace one idiot with another.
Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil
May 29th, 2011
9:59 pm
Hall ends the video farewell by saying she cherished her time in Atlanta and will hold the staff and students in her heart.
What she forgot to mention was: SHE WILL ALSO HOLD MILLIONS OF FEDERAL DOLLARS IN HER POCKET!
JANICE MOORE
May 29th, 2011
10:02 pm
DR. BEVERLY HALL IS A TOTAL FAILURE. I seriously hope that the GBI holds her accountable for all of this. She thinks she is so smart by saying this on the last day of actual school. She should not be allowed to retire or resign without paying for her crimes. As the saying goes……THE BUCK STOPS HERE.
She should be ashamed of herself, but knowing her she is laughing about it—–or letting her female friends pat her on her back for getting over. She needs to take ALL of those she has put in place on the last year.
APS has never been in the mess they are now and we have Dr. Beverly Hall to thank for them.
Unfortunately, APS will be paying for her crimes for many years to come and that in itself is a total shame.
Dr. John Trotter
May 29th, 2011
10:18 pm
Hey Nupeman: I told you that I have nothing against Kappa…just don’t like Heatley promoting an inordinate number of Kappas and Calipeeps. No one likes this. Not fair to the non-Kappas and folks from other states. The Qs, Alphas, et al., deserve equal consideration. So do the KAs for that matter! Ha! The same goes for the soros. And the states? Just because California is in a heck of a financial pickle, this is not reason for Edmond Heatley to open an employment agency for the folks from Cali. Give an equitable shot to the educators who grew up in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. The Kappafornia crap needs to stop.
@ Nupeman: I am glad that Dr. Sam King is a Kappa. This doesn’t surprise me at all. Not one bit. Many great Kappas…Johnny Cochran, Horace Mann Bond (Julian’s pop), Sad Sam Jones and Bill Russell of the earlier day Celtics whom I adored (won it all in 1969 when only finished 4th in the Division…Sad Sam Jones’s last season), Gayle Sayers, and even ole Vernon over in DeKalb. Oh, don’t let me forget the Big O! Oscar Robertson, if you are too young to remember. Ha! I told you that I marched with the Nupes in the First Annual King Parade on Peachtree Street. One of my favorite students of all time was President of the Emory Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, and he invited me.
So, next time I see Sam, I will form the old thumb and index finger together and give him the Nupe sign! (I won’t tell him that Dr. Moses Norman used to give me VIP Cards to the Omega House.)
TopSchool
May 30th, 2011
12:04 am
Atlanta Education, Politics and Business …You’ve summed it up…4 simple words….and we know they are not held accountable for any illegal activity in these elite circles. They are all scratching each others’ backs with a dull butter knife.
http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com
TopSchool
May 30th, 2011
12:28 am
Rewind to this and read again…
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2010/12/19/did-aps-officials-suppress-probe-into-crct-cheating/?cp=3
And these folks will not be held accountable???
Professional Standards Commission should be totally dismantled…
Think of all the money that could be used constructively for children while JOHN GRANT and WARREN FORTSON use the taxpayer’s money to make a mockery out of PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS that are selectively applied to ONLY SOME FOLK….
The public needs to demand criminal charges against these APS corrupt leaders.
TopSchool
May 30th, 2011
12:33 am
While the AJC brought this to the forefront …How do these reporters feel watching nothing happen to those corrupt individuals they’ve attempted to disclose?
I know what it feels like…What a waste of time…Walking out of the federal courthouse and knowing this process is completely BS. Buckhead Sh_t. They will not be held accountable for anything they do.
QE3
May 30th, 2011
12:47 am
Dedicated to Bev….one for the road!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uajchd0FEA
BTW, when will the Feds freeze her Swiss/ Caribbean accounts?
The accomplishments were false, so the rewards were not earned.
Steve From Tucker
May 30th, 2011
7:13 am
Got to wonder why she is not in jail. She set back the City of Atlanta by 10 years. Those kids had no chance. Maybe with her gone, they will.
TopSchool
May 30th, 2011
9:32 pm
Those protecting Hall sit in some of the largest mansions in Buckhead…they are protecting her so the Buckhead Business beat can go on as usual.
They will not ask her to return any money…she knows too much.
a wink…and a nod…and soon all of this will be over…and they will start all over, too.
This was just issues on test scores…what do you think is missing from the education pot of gold?
http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com
another aps teacher
May 30th, 2011
10:30 pm
This is one APS teacher who will neither be alarmed nor alarmed. I told people YEARS ago that the elementary schools were cheating for the students. I openly shared my disgust that one needs only to get 50% of the answers correct on the CRCT to pass. I told people that these babies come to us in middle school not knowing how to add, subtract, multiply, divide, read, write, or spell I also told people (whoever would listen) that the hoops Beverly Hall made teachers and administrators leap through were ineffectual (at best). Twelve years of smoke,mirrors, and whitewash.
Don’t get me wrong, APS does have some marvelous programs in place for portions of the population. But for th students who are most at risk? The teachers who get real authentic positive results are old school teachers who close their doors and actually teach the children the way we were taught back in the day. We do that for the children, because those of us who have gotten caught have faced censure for “not differentiating, not using graphic organizers, not using technology in our instruction…” and not going with the latest fad. Good riddance Beverly Hall. I hope they make you pay back all that money you stole from the tax payers.
another aps teacher
May 30th, 2011
10:35 pm
I meant neither troubled nor alarmed. Posting before editing will make one look foolish every day. Sorry.
@top school and others
May 31st, 2011
10:01 pm
I have to say, Top School, you have been thoroughly wronged by the APS system. You have spent so much of your hard earned money with no reprieve in sight. I too have been wronged by APS and have sent all documentation to Professional Standards to confirm criminal activity regarding falsification of a document. I had been awaiting a response for months regarding a complaint about a falsified Annual Review Summary. I asked if they could retrieve my original signed document. Their response was that the complaint was expunged. Well where is the original signed document?
The people are under the impression that Clayton, APS, and Dekalb are the only poorly run systems. Well Rockdale County that is headed by Sam King has its challenges too. There is extreme nepotism in personnel and positions are posted but given to friends, families, or sorors/frats. Metro Georgia is a horrible place to teach. I have heard it from all over. They all are in cahoots and play the same unethical games.
Little is being said about nonrenewed teachers, but I will bet that most of those not hired by other sytems are African American certified teachers.
To the racist posters: Black and White teachers are oppressed in these systems; it has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with greed.APS has friends in the Superior Court systems, with other legal systems, in the medical fields, with spineless teachers,with the elite business community,with Professional Standards, and with the “stepandfetchit” Mayor Kasim Reed(what a huge disappointment he is.)
I hope that the GBI’s alarming report will expose the teachers who have been wrongly terminated. I hope that they will invite the feds to do the real investigating. I hope that there will finally be retribution for Top School and that whatever he has spent will be returned to him one hundred fold plus pain and suffering. I also hope that the spineless teachers will unite with the vocal ones in unity because no one is exempt from the wrath of administration.
HLS
May 31st, 2011
10:50 pm
John – Just saying it does not make it so – but you have had a lot of practice at making lies sound good to those who are gullible. Thompson did hire a bunch of his old cronies. This superintendent, Heatley has not. Your info is bogus. Very few people have been hired in from outside our system. Again – you have been caught stretching the truth. It is also funny, you do not mind name-dropping. Makes you feel more important , does it.
Kiara – I do know Heatley – have talked to him numerous times – discussed many matters involving the school system. Either you have not been around to see the whole accreditation trip we have been on – or you are a self-righteous teacher. The loss of accreditation had nothing to do with the teachers – they were educatikng the students before and during the crisis – it was all about the administration of the school system- the old Trotter led or influenced BOEs with their infighting and micro-managing and absolute disrespect and disdain to those who are tasked with trying to keep our schools traveling in the right direction. The teachers of the system have been there – doing the job of education the kids. The change that help get accreditation back was the change in superintendent – to a hard worker – not a peacock or a Board puppet, or cheating principal. And a BOE, who even with their differences, have worked together to get work done – and to make hard decisions. Actually – I think if the teachers really look at the condition and the financial situation of our county and how the tax base has been decimated – these educated people would stop there bellowing. And if a survey were done with the parents of this county, The vast majority will be in favor of this group and what they have accomplished with the school accreditation. Frankly i would rather stand with those citizen than the teachers and their unions.
You should talk to members of the citizen budget committee – these people will tell you – teachers have contracts – the superintendent has a contract. They will also tell you that the supposed 30k is a fallacy.
Top School
June 1st, 2011
7:10 pm
My case is over…
The safety nets in Professional Standards are designed to protect the Administration and the Buckhead Buddy system.
Until the parental public says enough…(and that would need to be the folks on the southside of Atlanta…) the northside corrupt beat will continue without skipping a beat.
Ole Guy
June 1st, 2011
8:23 pm
Ah…some more glowing stats to illustrate the “successes” of another “Custer Command”.