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Thursday, October 27, 2005
How I Told Atlanta’s Story
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I knew I was going to have to take some heat for this story about Atlanta Public Schools and the findings of an independent consultant hired by business leaders to assess whether Atlanta schools are moving forward fast enough.
Although I attended a presentation, which touched on some of the 150-page reports findings, my job was to cover the contents of the report. So when my story ran the next day, those who were at the presentation were understandably perplexed. How could we have been at the same meeting and emerged with such different perspectives? Like I said, I read the report. And while Atlanta schools are clearly making impressive strides in graduation rates and other areas, students are still struggling mightily in middle and high school.
There is no obvious solution to fixing schools that serve so many students from single-parent homes, from families that move around a lot, from neighborhoods where going to college is the exception rather than the norm. That doesn’t mean successful kids don’t emerge from Atlanta public schools every day. They do, and I’ve written about them. But, come on, no school system anywhere has figured out how to reach every child - a point touched on at the presentation.
The report and the presentation also dealt with how Atlanta needs help “telling its story,” so the public will know the good things going on. Because of this context, I knew some readers would not be happy with the story I wrote.
I have looked back over the story and if I had it to do over again I wouldn’t change my approach. That doesn’t mean I haven’t appreciated hearing from the people who thought I was unfair, biased and cynical. It gave me a chance to think hard about how to cover Atlanta schools, something I’ll be doing more of in the future. My belief is that I have to cover Atlanta the same way I have covered Gwinnett, Henry, Clayton and DeKalb - the bad along with the good.
Get Schooled readers, what do you think?
