Archive for the ‘Atlanta Public Schools’ Category

The state Department of Education released its list of Alert Schools today.

The new DOE accountability designations — priority schools, focus schools and reward schools — replace the “needs improvement” label in No Child Left Behind that educators deemed unclear and unhelpful. These three designations target  “Title I” schools that have a high percentage of low-income students. DOE also designated a fourth category, “alert schools,” so the state can focus on struggling schools that do not necessarily have a high percentage of low-income students.

DOE defines Alert Schools are those that need to raise student achievement on statewide assessments in the areas of graduation rate for high schools and subgroup performance and subject performance for elementary and middle schools. Alert Schools can be Title I Schools or Non-Title I Schools.

The criteria used to identify Alert Schools are:

(1) Graduation Alert Schools: High Schools whose subgroup graduation rate falls at …

Continue reading State DOE releases list of Alert Schools today »

Atlanta joined other metro school systems in announcing plans to lay off employees to cope with a worsening budget crisis.

Gwinnett is planning for 585 fewer employees, Cobb is planning for 250 fewer, Henry is planning to cut 200, DeKalb is planning for 133 fewer, and Clayton and Fayette might have to work with roughly 100 fewer employees.

The AJC reports that the APS board is looking at cutting up to 475 jobs, including about 230 teachers, 90 custodians and 14 bus drivers and transportation staffers. Some of the layoffs are a result of a recent school redistricting, others because of declining revenue.

According to the AJC:

“We’re going to rethink almost everything we do, from the classroom to central offices,” said Chuck Burbridge, APS’ chief financial officer.

Revenue from property taxes has dropped by $119 million since 2008. Over the same period, the budget for the 49,000-student district has decreased by $56 million.

Almost every department was asked to cut spending …

Continue reading APS joins the club: May cut 475 jobs to deal with budget »

Here is a letter from former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin on behalf of Drew Charter School’s request to expand to a high school, a request opposed by APS school chief Erroll Davis.

Davis argues that a new 600-student high school at Drew dilutes the system’s effort to reinvent the nearby Maynard Jackson High school — $40 million has been budgeted for the transformation — and exacerbates Atlanta’s already costly problem of too many empty high school seats.

Dear Chairman McDaniel and Members of the Board:

Some of you will remember that in 1999 I helped establish Drew Charter School and served as Chair of the Drew board of directors until I became mayor. Two of you, Emmett Johnson and Brenda Muhammad, were part of the Board that unanimously approved Drew’s charter. And five of you have voted to renew Drew’s charter at least once since that time. In the thirteen years since the Atlanta Board of Education took a chance on a dramatic new idea in public education – Drew was the …

Continue reading Shirley Franklin asks APS board to overrule school chief and approve Drew high school »

The opposition of APS superintendent Erroll Davis to a new high school at Charles Drew Charter School disappoints the plan’s proponents, but does not dissuade them.

I met with the principal and the chairman of the board Thursday at the east Atlanta campus. They are in the midst of a campaign to mobilize the school’s many supporters, including corporate sponsors and former Mayor Shirley Franklin.

“It is going to be an all-out communications campaign to get everyone on board to support this great opportunity,” said Cynthia Kuhlman, chairman of the board of Drew Charter School, Inc.

Opened 12 years ago, Drew now has 880 students and goes through eighth grade. The school serves as a central component of the revitalization of the East Lake neighborhood, which was once home to Atlanta’s most notorious and dangerous public housing development, East Lake Meadows. The vision of developer Tom Cousins transformed the barb-wired high-rise complex into a mixed-income model community that …

Continue reading Proponents of new high school at Drew Charter gear up to win support »

APS school chief Erroll Davis is not recommending that APS approve the addition of a high school at the Charles R. Drew Charter school.

Drew is an APS charter school in Atlanta’s East Lake community. (It connects with the East Lake Family YMCA.)

The news has disappointed Drew parents, some of whom saw their children zoned out of Grady High School — just ranked among the state’s best high schools by US News — to the less successful Jackson High. One reason those parents did not fight the reassignment was that they were expecting the charter school to add the high school. So, this news is bound to upset them.

I asked APS for a statement from Davis, who responded: “I am not supporting Charles R. Drew Charter School’s request to amend their charter to add high school grades at this time, because there is already an over supply of empty seats in the area for 9th through 12th grade students.  From a strategic standpoint, we have committed approximately $40 million to renovating …

Continue reading APS school chief opposes addition of a high school at Drew Charter school »

The APS cheating scandal has led the system to pursue principal firings in schools where there was widespread cheating by classroom teachers.

But some principals counter that they did not order teachers to cheat, so why are they to blame when their employees do the wrong thing. Are they responsible for the actions of their teachers? Even if they should have known something was amiss, what if they didn’t?

In the AJC story this week on her APS tribunal hearing, Slater Elementary School principal Selena Dukes Walton contended,  “I am not responsible for something I did not know about. I’m not responsible for the teacher.”

But in an interview with the AJC last week, APS Superintendent Erroll Davis said, “When principals say to me that ‘The investigators’ report said I wasn’t involved, why am I being removed from the job?’ I say, ‘Absolutely, you did not cheat but you failed. I put the malleable lives of young children in your hands and you failed.”’

Davis said, “You can predict …

Continue reading Are principals accountable for the cheating on their watch? Should they be fired? »

What do our young people need to know?

That question was the centerpiece of the second major event that NBC Education Nation sponsored during in its visit to Atlanta this week. In a noon panel today at the Georgia Aquarium Monday hosted by NBC reporter David Gregory, Gov. Nathan Deal, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and U.S. Sen Johnny Isakson tackled the question.

The responses were fairly straightforward and essentially gave each politician an opportunity to tout their own efforts on behalf of education. Deal began by saying that the state has a constitutional obligation to educate its children. (I was surprised no teachers jumped to their feet then to ask if that constitutional obligation included adequate funding.)

The governor’s main theme was that Georgia schools were on their way to offering industry a deep and qualified workforce. He listed the various companies that have chosen to open new facilities in Georgia during his term, in part, he says, because they trust that they …

Continue reading NBC Education Nation: Second event on work skills today »

Erroll B. Davis Jr. says APS must focus on outcomes.

Erroll B. Davis left industry to run Georgia’s colleges. Now, he may have the toughest challenge of his long distinguished career, revitalizing a badly damaged APS.

Davis met with AJC reporters and editors this week to discuss how he will do that. Here are highlights of the nearly two-hour freewheeling discussion: (I will be adding to this as there is a lot of information to sort.)

I will begin by saying that at the close, I asked Davis why we should believe that his vision for Atlanta schools will succeed.

Much of what he and his deputy Karen Waldon told us echoed the comments of Beverly Hall in her many meetings with the AJC over the years.

Hall, too, talked about valuing critical thinking skills over test scores, of empowering principals, of improving teaching, of honoring great teachers and of embracing site-based management. She, too, talked about meeting with APS grads now attending Ivy League schools and listening to …

Continue reading A long chat with Erroll Davis about APS and the cheating mess: “Only so many ways to perfume a pig.” »

Former APS school chief Beverly Hall remains in Atlanta. (AJC Photo)

The Sunday AJC has an update today on the status of former APS superintendent Beverly Hall.

While APS is moving ahead in its efforts to dismiss educators accused of cheating, there are no charges pending against Hall and the Fulton DA will only say that his probe is ongoing.

Although the state’s own investigation into CRCT cheating in Atlanta concluded that Hall “knew or should have known about cheating,” Hall denies any role. She says that while she expected educators to raise student achievement, she never pressured them to cheat or sanctioned cheating.

The decision to bring charges will likely hinge on the resolution of this issue: Whether Hall created a success-at-any-cost culture that led to widespread cheating or whether she actively condoned cheating by ignoring glaring disparities in performance and by shrugging off whistle-blower reports of test tampering.

According to the AJC:

The former Atlanta …

Continue reading Former APS chief Beverly Hall. Still in Atlanta but keeping a low profile »

I have been getting a lot of notes lately from teachers in APS about assorted concerns.

Here are two such notes, one about some teachers having to reapply for their jobs and the other about the CRCT scheduling this year. I contacted APS and have included the official response to why some teachers must reapply.

Here is the first teacher note:

Teachers at some APS schools were told today that they have to reapply for their jobs. They have to attend a job fair this Saturday, resubmit applications and resumes and respond to a writing prompt. Only teachers from schools that are being closed or from schools that are are being reclassified as primary or secondary have to do this. Grove Park and Woodson are included in this restructuring.

Teachers at these schools already face daunting challenges. They are the professionals who work with the neediest children. Please investigate why only teachers from schools affected by restructuring have to go through this ordeal. Also, …

Continue reading APS news: Some teachers told they must reapply for their jobs. And does the CRCT scheduling make sense for kids? »