Atlanta Public Schools is one of 35 school districts serving the metro
area. Although the City of Atlanta's population has remained relatively
static, declining birth rates in the city have lowered enrollment from
about 60,000 students during the mid-1990s to our current level of
50,000 students.

The racial make-up of our student body is relatively stable at 84
percent black, 9 percent white, 5 percent Hispanic and 1 percent other.
Three in four of our students are approved for free or reduced-price
meals, and of these, 94 percent receive free meals---that's roughly
36,000 of our 50,000 students living near or below the poverty line.

The introduction of the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests in
2000 gave us a needed, if depressing, baseline for student performance.

-   In grade 4, 47 percent of our students met or exceeded expectations
    in reading, compared with 65 percent statewide.

-   In grade 6, 40 percent of our students met or exceeded expectations
    in language arts, compared with 61 percent in the state.

-   In grade 8, 36 percent of our students met or exceeded expectations
    in mathematics, compared with 54 percent statewide.

Atlanta Public Schools trailed the state by 14 or more points in every
tested subject and grade level.

Our students were also not performing as well as those in the state in
writing. In 1999, Atlanta fifth- and eighth-graders trailed the
statewide percentage of students who met or exceeded the standard on the
state writing assessment, and two out of every three eighth-grade
students did not meet expectations.

Although graduation rates rose by 10 percentage points between 1996 and
1999, by the end of 1999 a full 40 percent of those who had entered
ninth-grade four years earlier did not receive diplomas.

**What does APS look like today?**

Using our focus on instruction and student success, proven,
research-based methods and an accountability system tailored to each
school, more than eight years after initiating our comprehensive reform
agenda, I am pleased to say that the transformation initiatives are
paying off:

-   The district has demonstrated continued steady improvement as
    evidenced by increasing test scores over time. There has been no
    exception to this trend since 2000.

-   In 2008, APS students posted meaningful academic gains on the state
    assessments for the eighth consecutive year. In fact, our
    preliminary data suggest that in all grades and subjects tested last
    year, our students met or exceeded their 2007 performance.

-   The number of APS schools making Adequate Yearly Progress continues
    to increase. This year all 62 elementary schools, including our
    charter schools, met AYP for the first time in history. No other
    large urban school district can make that claim, according to the
    Council of Great City Schools. Venetian Hills Elementary, which was
    in Needs Improvement status in 2002, was named a 2007 "Blue Ribbon"
    school by the U.S. Department of Education---a total transformation.

-   Secretary Spellings recently called APS "a model for the country,"
    based on our students' performance on the 2007 National Assessment
    of Educational Progress. APS was the only one of the 11 districts
    voluntarily participating in the Trial Urban District Assessment to
    demonstrate significant, consistent improvement in all grades and
    test areas since 2003. The most recent NAEP writing assessments show
    that Atlanta's scores have grown at *seven times* the national rate.

-   The local donor community stands behind me and my reform efforts.

-   Since 1999, I have implemented system-wide reform at each school
    level:

    -   Elementary: APS maintained or closed the gap with the state on
        28 of 30 comparable subject area assessments, and 100 percent of
        our elementary schools made Adequate Yearly Progress.

    -   Middle school: Transformation of all middle schools is about to
        launch with a tailored strategic plan for each.

    -   High school: by 2012, all APS high schools will be transformed
        into small, personalized learning environments focused on
        college and careers. Carver High School, now the four New
        Schools at Carver, has experienced a 50 percent increase in the
        number of neighborhood children enrolling, and the graduation
        rate has jumped from 23 percent in 2003 to 66 percent in 2007.
        The system's overall graduation rate is 68 percent which is
        comparable with the state and exceeds the national average of 50
        percent for students of color. The number of students attending
        college in our Project GRAD target schools has increased by 400
        percent.

**How was this remarkable turnaround accomplished?**

The impetus for change came from the business community and the Atlanta
Chamber of Commerce in the 1990s when, after realizing the direction in
which the district was moving, and the negative impact it was having on
economic development, they made a conscious effort to turn things
around.

First, a coalition of business and community leaders set out to improve
the caliber of those running for school board. They did so by helping
recruit candidates and holding seminars regarding effective
boardsmanship.

The second step was to hire a superintendent (for the 1999-00 school
year) who was reform-minded and had a sense of what needed to be done to
turn things around.

I made a comprehensive series of changes to reform the district, none of
which can be discounted.

1.  Reorganized central office and revised central office job
    descriptions and annual staff evaluations in ways that signal (to
    the incumbents) that their major task is to support school-based
    staff in their efforts to improve the quality of teaching and
    learning.

2.  Incorporated the extent to which students perform at higher
    performance levels directly into central office staff and
    school-based staff annual evaluations, assuring that they all focus
    on this ultimate outcome.

3.  Did not tolerate the presence of chronically ineffective staff (at
    any level) who did not, or could not, benefit from professional
    development.

4.  Upgraded the quality of school principals through more effective
    recruiting, mentoring once they were hired, and through holding them
    accountable for the performance of their students. Those principals
    who were deemed not to be qualified were removed from those
    positions. Approximately 89 percent of our schools have gotten new
    principals since 1999.

5.  Required the development of a district-wide Strategic Plan, as well
    as individual School Achievement Plans, that required staff to
    specify how they were going to address system-wide initiatives.
    These plans also provided a roadmap by which supervisors could judge
    the progress of their staff and suggest program improvements.

6.  Established mechanisms for gathering input from central office
    staff, principals, teachers, and students regarding how the district
    was functioning and ways how it could be improved.

7.  Provided principals with the tools they needed to effectively
    monitor and adjust the quality of instruction in their schools.

8.  Provided schools with various forms of technology and taught staff
    how to use it to improve school efficiency and/or student learning.

9.  Set clear expectations for what constitutes "best practices" by
    teachers, and provided on-going training for teachers regarding how
    to meet those expectations at the highest levels.

10. Improved the overall quality of teaching through aggressive
    recruiting techniques, and the use of alternatively prepared
    teachers like Teach for America corpsmembers.

11. Upgraded the quality of classroom teaching by designing and
    implementing (on an on-going basis) targeted professional
    development

12. Introduced a variety of specific program initiatives to give staff
    the necessary structure to help them address specific teaching and
    learning issues. These initiatives included the Comprehensive School
    Reform Models, Project GRAD, High School Learning Communities, etc.

13. Conducted, on an on-going basis, special studies to respond to areas
    identified by data as problem areas. For example, data indicated
    weaknesses at the middle school level, the high school level and in
    science. Based on these analyses special program efforts were
    designed to address the weaknesses.

14. Solicited, on an on-going basis, grants and other support from
    outside organizations to finance efforts that were beyond the
    funding that was raised locally.

15. Provided public recognition (and bonuses) to staff in schools that
    were unusually effective.

16. Taught staff at all levels (central office and in the schools) to
    access and use a wide variety of data for making resource allocation
    decisions, and for adjusting instruction for individual students.

17. Enhanced security operations in the schools to assure the best
    possible environment for effective teaching and learning.

18. Worked, in an on-going manner, with business, civic and parents
    groups to gain support for several tax levies that were used to
    enhance the reform efforts.

19. Elevated the professionalism and quality of the school district's
    business functions in order to build and maintain the public's
    confidence in the district to wisely spend and account for public
    tax dollars.

20. Improved the physical character of the schools, making them safer,
    more functional and more attractive.

The Atlanta Public Schools hasn't claimed victory yet. We are still
climbing the tough path to total transformation, but with achievement
gaps melting away and the strong support of our community, our goal is
in sight.