Are You Day One Ready? APS Is.

Long before the last student exited from school for the 2015-2016 school year, Atlanta Public Schools began preparing for that first student walking into one of our schools for the next school year. Are you Day One ready? APS is. [wpvideo HOEl3EzW] Here’s how we got ready: Our Operations Department went into high gear to…

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Unpacking Georgia Milestones Assessments for APS, Year Two

Whenever the time nears for the state to release major progress reports for schools – graduation rates, test results, the College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) – my feelings jump from anticipation to eagerness to anxiety and back again. Such reports almost always come with positive news of hope and progress tempered with indicators…

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Call to Action for a Kinder, Braver, Safer World

Dear President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education John King, It started with the first rally cry: Je suis Charlie. And, sadly, then there were more. Paris. San Bernardino. Brussels. Orlando. Istanbul. Bangladesh. Dallas. As the United States is still reeling from weeks of tragic events, it came full circle for France last night. Je suis Nice. Among the 84…

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More Facts and Update on Water Testing Mid-Point Results

With less than a month before we open the 2016-2017 school year, Atlanta Public Schools is quickly and methodically wrapping up its voluntary, proactive effort to test the district’s water sources to determine if there is any lead. As I wrote in detail a couple of weeks ago, we took the initiative to test our…

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How We Can Move From Heaviness to Hope

Listening again to helicopters hovering overhead downtown last night after watching media coverage of the ensuing protests across the country, I couldn’t sleep. I kept playing over and over in my head the conversations I’ve been having with two APS graduates who are black males. “I am one bullet away from becoming a #hashtag.” A…

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APS Tests for Lead to Ensure Safe Water in Schools

When reports began circulating several months ago about the discovery of lead in the water in public buildings in Flint, Mich., and other major cities, we in Atlanta Public Schools felt we had to do something immediately to ensure that the water in our buildings remained safe for consumption. We immediately decided to test our…

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A New Day for Safety and Security in APS

Tonight marked the beginning of a new era for Atlanta Public Schools – the official start of the APS Police Department. This is a day that has been more than a year in the making. The new police force will not only have the crucial training and skills in police work and emergency management, but…

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Addressing Allegations, Building Trust in APS

As part of our mission to ensure every student graduates ready for college and career, we are doing the work to create a “culture of trust” in the ways we remedy the past and remove barriers for the future. Take issues such as CRCT remediation and enrichment or pay parity. These are problems we didn’t…

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Social Emotional Learning – A Proven Game-Changer for APS Students, Staff

Truth without hope is failure, but hope without truth is fantasy. It’s only in those moments when you are able to confront truth at its harshest, and hope at its most powerful, that you believe dramatic change is possible. – Sen. Mike Johnston For all of us on Sunday, we witnessed the mass shooting in…

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Congratulations, APS Class of 2016!

It’s official. It’s late on Friday at the Georgia World Congress Center. And the last of the Atlanta Public Schools’ Classes of 2016 – an enthusiastic gathering of newly conferred graduates from Alonzo Crim High School – has left the building. Throughout the week, APS family and friends came together in 12 different ceremonies to…

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