On Thursday, September 22, 2011 at Whiteford Elementary, Board of Education member Cecily Harsh-Kinnane hosted a district 3 community meeting featuring a question and answer session with superintendent Erroll Davis.
Below is the third in a series of questions and answers addressed at that meeting.
Q: Mr. Johnson said something that concerns me – that parents should hold the board’s feet to the fire. Does the board have a mission statement and a system of accountability?
Mr. Davis: Yes, the system does have a mission statement. The board just went through a complete reorganization of its governance structure. And a key part of board meetings is time set aside for community input, which we value. Feedback from parents and community members helps inform our policies and ensure accountability. Parental involvement is so important that our remediation plan has been designed not only to work with the child, but also the parents. For example, we want parents to know that homework is there for a reason. It is not called home play; it’s homework. Working together, we can get important messages across to students.
(Both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Harsch-Kinnane added that they’d like parents to understand and to help educate others on the role of board members. It is not to engage in the day-to-day administration of the school system.)
Erroll Davis vists the staff of Boyd Elementary School during Day One APS
Recently, superintendent Erroll Davis met with several groups in an effort to share the district’s preliminary CRCT response plan and to help restore the community’s confidence in APS.
The Mr. Davis spent time with year-round school employees during Day One APS, touring the campuses of Centennial Place Elementary, Boyd Elementary and Hutchinson Elementary. Central office staff joined Davis for an informal “brown bag lunch,” announced as the first of many, where he took questions from employees and heard updates and addressed concerns from various department members. Later in the week, the newly appointed superintendent met with members of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.
The superintendent plans to continue his dialogue sessions by attending the following upcoming events :
July 20–22: Principals Academy (internal event)
July 25: Assistant Principals Academy (internal event)
July 28–29: New Teacher Orientation (internal event)
July 21: District 4 Town Hall Meeting (open to the public)
Board Member Nancy Meister will host a town hall meeting from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Garden Hills Elementary.
July 25: SNAPPS to Host ‘Coffee and Conversation With the Superintendent (open to the public)
The time and location of this special meeting of the Southwest and Northwest Atlanta Parents and Partners for Schools will be announced next week, when details are finalized.
ATLANTA – The Atlanta Board of Education this afternoon voted to extend Interim Superintendent Erroll B. Davis’ employment contract to one year, following his presentation to them of an initial action plan to address the issues raised in the state CRCT investigation report.
Davis, who became interim superintendent last Friday, is now scheduled to serve in the position until June 30, 2012. The action followed an executive session (closed door) of the Board to discuss personnel issues and potential litigation.
During the earlier public session, Davis presented his initial action plan in response to Tuesday’s release of the state CRCT investigation report. The plan includes:
- Addressing personnel issues identified in the report
- Moving the district’s Office of Internal Resolution (OIR) from Human Resources to Internal Audits, which reports directly to the Board
- Setting ‘trigger points’ that will result in automatic investigations of schools whose test scores increase by a larger than normal percentage
- Initiating climate surveys to periodically assess the culture at district schools and offices
- Adding customer service and student support key measures to the district’s “Balanced Scorecard”, which is used to evaluate the performance of departments and employees on an annual basis
- Establishing annual mandatory ethics training for all employees
- Training of test coordinators by an external group
- Developing an academic remediation plan for students impacted by testing improprieties.
Earlier today, the Board voted to accept the state CRCT investigation report and Davis’ initial action plan for addressing issues identified by the state probe.
ATLANTA — Atlanta Public Schools has developed an initial plan for responding to the results of the state CRCT investigation report that includes a wide range of actions intended to prevent recurrences of testing improprieties.
The plan includes:
- Moving the district’s Office of Internal Resolution (OIR) from Human Resources to Internal Audits, which reports directly to the Atlanta Board of Education.
- Setting ‘trigger points’ that will result in automatic investigations of schools whose test scores increase by a larger than normal percentage.
- Initiating climate surveys to periodically assess the culture at district schools and offices.
- Adding customer service and student support key measures to the district’s ‘Balanced Scorecard’, which is used to evaluate the performance of departments and employees on an annual basis.
Interim Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. previously said that he will initiate appropriate action against each and every APS employee who was involved in testing irregularities and tampering. Prior to the release of the state CRCT investigation report, APS submitted the names of more than one hundred employees to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (PSC) for further investigation of testing improprieties and temporarily reassigned 12 principals whose schools had apparent testing issues.
“I plan to issue a more detailed action plan in response to the state CRCT investigation report that will be based on an extensive and thorough review of the findings,” said Davis. “I plan to take the time required to painstakingly go over the state report so that we address each and every issue it identifies,” said Davis.
APS has already enhanced the testing environment in all schools with tighter security for testing materials and state-of-the-art safeguards designed to prevent improprieties and tampering. These enhancements were implemented starting with the 2010 CRCT administration, with additional enhancements added for the 2011 CRCT administration. The district also enhanced its annual training for all employees involved in testing and established a 24-hour hotline, where people are encouraged to report testing improprieties.
“Most APS parents and guardians already know that the vast majority of our principals, teachers and staff are dedicated, honest and hard-working people who always have the best interests of children in mind in everything they do in thousands of classrooms throughout the district,” Davis said.
Davis vowed to correct any remaining deficiencies in the testing area, while moving forward with the district’s existing urban education reform programs and implementing others as required to continue escalating student academic achievement throughout the district.
###
As feedback comes in from our parents and community members in the Twitter-verse, one blog posting in particular caught our eye this week:
Tonight while I was waiting for the bathtub to finish filling so I could give my 5-year-old his bath, I pulled out my phone to check Twitter. There was a huge rush of Tweets from @apsupdate, Twitter account for the Atlanta Public School system, which my kids attend. I saw someone answering questions about APS, and scrolled down to see this tweet:
@apsupdate: Have a question for our superintendent candidates? Tweet them now. #aps
OK, sure–why not? I replied:
@apsupdate What can APS do to address cyber bullying, and should schools get involved in online behavior that happens off school grounds?
I got a tweet thanking me for the question. After bath, I checked back. I got these replies…..
CONTINUE READING this powerful post written by APS parent Amy Bruckman, who felt engaged in a new and exciting way during our first live tweet of an APS event. This is a portion of our response to Ms. Bruckman:
….Last night you were just as “in the room” as any person sitting in the audience. In fact, you were even more engaged than some, because your question was asked, heard and answered by one of our candidates. Thank you for giving our live tweet a chance and thank you for participating. Every single child and parent/caretaker matters in APS. Each of us has a valuable voice. “See” you at the next live tweet!
APS looks forward to continuing to engage our parents via social media channels. Take time to visit our website, blog, Facebook page, Twitter account and YouTube channel to learn more about the stellar work being performed by our students, staff and parents.
Atlanta Public Schools‘ lottery system will determine who gets the 880 state-funded pre-K slots in 44 APS classrooms at 32 sites. Parents can register their child for the 2011-12 school year if he or she is 4 years old on or before September 1, 2011. Following are key dates and locations (with mapping hyperlinked):
- Sat., April 16 (8 a.m.-6 p.m.) – registration at Maynard H. Jackson High School
- Thurs., April 21 (6 p.m.-9 p.m.) – registration at the Instructional Services Center at the Dean Rusk Building
- Sat., April 23 (8 a.m.-6 p.m.) – registration at Inman Middle School
- Fri., April 29 (12 p.m.-3 p.m.) — lottery drawing at the Instructional Services Center at the Dean Rusk Building
Additional information – such as addresses for registration sites and required documentation – will soon be posted on the APS Web site. Prospective parents can also call the Pre-K Program Office at 404-802-3640.
UPDATES: Check out the photo gallery here. Watch speech by Carver Early College’s Paul Harris, Jr., and Douglass’ Edward Furman Mosley, III, here. Watch speech by Carver Early College teacher Matt Westmoreland here.
Atlanta Public Schools‘ valedictorians, salutatorians and “STAR” students were honored Wednesday morning with a breakfast hosted by Georgia Power and featuring Superintendent Dr. Beverly L. Hall.
“This celebration is one of my favorite events – for two very good reasons. First, it kicks off graduation season in Atlanta Public Schools. And second, this event represents the school district’s collective opportunity to publicly and proudly acknowledge the work of our valedictorians, salutatorians, STAR students, and STAR teachers,” Dr. Hall told the gathering.”
Dr. Hall went on to acknowledge sponsor Georgia Power, APS Associate Superintendent of High Schools Randolph Bynum, and the school principals, staff members, teachers and counselors. Dr. Hall also singled out the STAR teachers and students, the latter of whom scored the highest on their college entrance exams. The STAR student then selects the teacher who they believe made the difference in their education.
“STAR teachers were chosen for their significant contribution to students’ scholastic development,” Dr. Hall said. “Through their talent and passion, these teachers have left an indelible mark on their students’ lives – and for that, again, we thank them.”