Atlanta schools face sanctions if misses new report deadline

By Gracie Bonds Staples and Nancy Badertscher

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The state Board of Education turned impatient with Atlanta Public Schools, informing the district on Thursday it has an irrevocable Aug. 2 deadline to deliver its findings of possible cheating on last year's standardized testing or face sanctions.

If the Atlanta school system fails to comply, penalties could involve the loss of Adequate Yearly Progress status for 2009 and 2010, which tarnishes the district's academic reputation. Equally damaging if not more, federal funding could be withheld.

Atlanta Public Schools, however, still couldn't promise it would meet the newly installed deadline, which came a day after a July 30 deadline had been put in place.

"When we made the decision to go with an independent investigation, we lost that control because it's in the hands of a third party," said Keith Bromery, Atlanta school spokesman. "We didn't impose any deadlines, just that we wanted them to do it thoroughly and immediately --  and that's what they've been doing."

A blue-ribbon commission, a 15-person task force that consists of business and civic leaders and was commissioned by the Atlanta school board, will hand over a report involving possible district impropriety by 58  district schools involving the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests. The panel has chosen two firms to conduct data analysis, interviews and other tasks.

Regarding the Aug. 2 deadline, a public relations firm representing the commission said in an e-mail Thursday that the group’s chairman, Gary Price, was unavailable to comment.

James Bostic, a state board member whose district includes Atlanta, said he had spoken to Price and was confident Atlanta school officials would meet the Aug. 2 deadline.

“They understand how serious the concern is of the state board,” Bostic said. “We will stay after this day by day." 

Brad Bryant, new state school superintendent, said missing the deadline would mean the board could remove the AYP status of those schools that had the high number of erasures for 2009.

The state also could "hold identification of status for the same schools for the 2010 window," he said.

Reaction to the state deadline was mixed among people with past and present connections to Atlanta Public Schools.

Ameenah Payne, a 39-year-old mother of three, said the state was in its right to impose sanctions and called for Superintendent Beverly Hall and the school board members to step down.

"Why are they dragging their feet?" Payne asked. "We've had this entire summer to put something in place to help children who have been disenfranchised and who aren't learning."

Ora Cooks, a retired Atlanta school teacher, described possible state sanctions as unfair and premature.

“The whole idea of excessive erasures is silly to me because people erase all the time; little children, especially,” said Cooks, who has a grandson at Gideons Elementary School.

While a wieldy 88 percent of Gideons classroom scores are under investigation, Cooks called the state's action "a witch hunt" and expressed confidence in the school district.

“I’m not a racist," Cooks said. "I’m not a conspiracy person but it seems like someone has a vendetta against Beverly Hall.”

The loss of AYP status, and resulting reputation and federal funding, is significant punishment, said Matt Cardoza, state Board of Education spokesman.

“If we say we’re revoking AYP status that kind of paints a bad picture when you’re dealing with the community,” he said. “AYP means a lot to school systems, outside of just money.”

The board acted before a letter arrived from Hall, giving her personal assurance that the school system was ready to wind up its investigation.

Bromery said Atlanta Public School never wanted to be in the position of losing funding but it wouldn't be a permanent loss if it did. Yet he held out hope it could all be avoided.

"For all I know the report may be done by the end of the month," the school spokesman said.

Staff writer Heather Vogell contributed to this article.