Tag: education

When she arrived from Austin last year, Atlanta Public Schools superintendent Meria Carstarphen inherited a system reeling from a scandal of historic proportions. With the cheating trial finally over, she’s begun the slow process of raising graduation rates from 58.6 percent (now 59.1 percent) in a 50,000- student school system rife with economic inequality.

Since Becker took over as president of Georgia State University in 2009, the graduation rate has risen by 10 percent and the school has set records for enrollment and total number of graduates.

A decade ago, stellar turnarounds earned APS national praise. But now—in the wake of a cheating scandal that resulted in a trial, convictions, and TV footage of former educators handcuffed and headed for jail—gains at APS seem to come with an asterisk: Are they too good to be true?

Kindergarten cut-off dates vary throughout the country. Georgia has long been part of a large pack of states with a September 1 cutoff, although a new bill may change that. Lawmakers have proposed moving the date up one month to August 1 for the 2016-2017 school year, and then to July 1 beginning in 2017-2018. In other parts of the country, the cut-off date is as early as June 1.

This month, a school for entrepreneurs called General Assembly opens in Ponce City Market—days after Georgia lawmakers of the same collective name convene under the Gold Dome. One General Assembly offers tech-focused courses, such as digital marketing and web development. The other is likely to propose many things that’ll never happen.

The students of Utopian Academy for the Arts are being called on the carpet. Yesterday, their middle school mischief found the classic victim: a substitute teacher. The seventh-grade science room grew so loud that the classes on either side could hear the commotion through the walls.

For parents who want proof that chipping in for those capital campaigns can deliver: Several shiny new buildings and facilities opened on campuses across metro Atlanta this year, with upgrades ranging from high-tech to hands-on.

Believing that kids learn best when they’re not stuck behind desks in boring classrooms, Mount Vernon Presbyterian School created $500,000 open-concept flex spaces in the lower school.

As students return to the classroom this month, newly appointed Atlanta Public Schools superintendent Meria Carstarphen faces the daunting challenge of restoring public faith in APS.

I admit I was irked three years ago when my son—then in the second grade and still the bluest-eyed, palest-skinned kid you’ll ever meet—announced that he wanted to be called Francisco. Francis, the name we gave him at birth, and Frankie, the nickname he wore so adorably, were both out.