The New York Times‘ Atlanta reporter, Shaila Dewan, has an interesting take on APS’ handling of the CRCT test-answer investigation. Here’s a link to her article that was published over the weekend which is a follow-up to her first article following the release of the Blue Ribbon Commission’s report Aug. 2.
Here’s one excerpt of the article:
Throughout the crisis, Dr. Hall has responded with a cool professionalism rather than the outrage that some critics have demanded. Even as she has vowed to ferret out any dishonest educators and has removed the principals of the 12 schools, she has insisted that pervasive wrongdoing has yet to be proven.
“Hall’s own refusal to accept reality,” Jay Bookman, a columnist at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote in one of the more polite dissections of Dr. Hall, “is downright stunning.”
To Dr. Hall, there are plenty of reasons to resist the idea that the district’s progress is a mirage. During her tenure, the graduation rate has increased by 30 percentage points. In the last three years, the college scholarship money offered to Atlanta graduates has doubled. And in the urban district tracking program, where progress is measured by a gold-standard test called the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, scores have continued to climb.
