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Update (4:50 p.m., Sunday, December 10): Atlanta Public Schools is resuming normal school operations tomorrow, Monday, Dec. 11. After a review of our buildings, power, staffing, roads and weather, including information from city and state officials as well as neighboring school districts, APS will operate its normal school schedule tomorrow. Ensuring the safety of our students…
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When you constantly face the fire in public education, you don’t always have time for reflection and appreciation. All of us in Atlanta Public Schools – with the difficult charge of turning around our district and schools – know this all too well. We can come out of announcements about encouraging news about progress and…
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Amid the Fulton County tax collection mess, Atlanta Public Schools received some welcome news yesterday: The tax bills have been mailed! Hooray! For those who haven’t followed this issue as closely or carefully as we have over the past six months, you can review my previous blog posts here, here and here about the matter. In short, Fulton…
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Three Years into Journey of Transformation, Two-thirds of APS Schools Increase on State CCRPI Scores
This morning, the Georgia Department of Education released the latest College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) scores for all Georgia public schools. Fifty-six of our schools – about two thirds! – showed gains; that’s 23 more than last year! As a district, APS saw its average CCRPI score rise 3.1 points to 68.3 points,…
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When the Fulton County Commission considered freezing a portion of the county’s tax digest for reassessed residential properties, Atlanta Public Schools took a strong stance in support of the county adopting a digest with a reasonable amount of growth. The commission instead opted to freeze assessments at FY2016 levels. APS pivoted and modified our FY2018…
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Looking back over this past weekend, I can emphatically state that Atlanta Public Schools really knows how to put on a Homecoming weekend! On Friday morning, Oct. 20, more than 200 students brought their talents together to help me with a homecoming-themed 2017 State of the District. The next day, Saturday, Oct. 21, five of…
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District develops plan to improve upon finding that APS awarded lower than expected contract dollars to minority- and women-owned businesses If there is one thing I have learned from living in Atlanta for more than three years, it is that our city is home to a vibrant and diverse community. Therefore, our procurement process (the…
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APS pathway starts with early childhood education and includes such signposts as Georgia Milestones results, graduation rates and college entrance exam data With a focus on graduating students for college and career readiness, Atlanta Public Schools (APS) has received quite a bit of positive news over recent weeks that indicates the district has not only…
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District graduates 2,356 students – 89 more than last year – for a 5.9 percentage point gain, closing the gap by 4.7 percentage points with the state graduation rate As superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, several events and parts of the year make me anxious enough that I am actually kept awake at night or…
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District focused on safe return of students & staff to school UPDATE (6:30 a.m., Thursday, Sept. 14): We are open for business today! Atlanta Public Schools will follow a normal operating schedule now that our operations team has completed a full review of our facilities, buses, technology, and nutrition services in the wake of Hurricane/Tropical…
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