Timeline: Beverly Hall and Atlanta Public Schools

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

July 1999: Beverly Hall begins work in Atlanta. The superintendent of Newark, N.J., public schools for four years, she replaces interim superintendent Betty Strickland, who took over in May 1998 after Benjamin Canada left for Portland, Ore.

May 2004: The AJC reports that the school district wasted and mismanaged millions of dollars from the federal E-rate program for technology purchases. Two district officials later get prison terms. Hall blames problems inherited from the prior administration.

April 2007: The Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announces it will give $10.5 million to help redesign the system’s high schools.

October 2007: G.E. Foundation pledges $22 million to Atlanta schools to boost math and science programs.

February 2009: Hall wins recognition as the national Superintendent of the Year from the American Association of School Administrators. The group calls Atlanta “a model of urban school reform.” Her supporters credit her with raising the district’s test scores and graduation rate.

2008-09: The AJC reports statistically unlikely gains at some Atlanta schools on summer retests of the 2008 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test and the 2009 CRCT. A state investigation finds strong evidence of cheating on retests at one Atlanta school and three in other districts.

February 2010: A state analysis finds suspicious erasure marks on thousands of students’ answer sheets in classrooms statewide. Atlanta has 58 schools — the highest number of any district statewide — in question. The state board orders the district to investigate.

March: A “blue ribbon commission” is chosen to oversee the city’s cheating investigation based on recommendations by the board, the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the nonprofit Atlanta Education Fund, a district advocacy group.

August: The commission submits its report on the investigation. Gov. Sonny Perdue calls the work inadequate and appoints special investigators to scrutinize the testing programs in the Atlanta and Dougherty County school systems.

October: Fifty GBI agents begin questioning teachers and administrators about whether they falsified test results at schools across the district.

Nov. 20: Hall announces she will leave APS at the end of her contract in June 2011.

Making her mark

When she was named the nation’s top superintendent by the American Association of School Administrators in early 2009, Atlanta schools chief Beverly Hall pointed to these programs, supported by grants and nonprofit organizations, as her key accomplishments:

Performance targets. Hall set academic goals for each school to meet annually. If schools succeed, everyone who works there — teachers, principals, custodians, etc. — receives a cash bonus.

Project GRAD. Hall made the lowest-performing schools adopt this research-based program that includes highly regimented 90-minute daily reading lessons. Students who succeed are eligible for college scholarships.

High school transformation. The district converted high schools into smaller academies, each focused on a career such as medicine, engineering and fine arts. Hall says providing students with personal experiences and more challenging lessons will improve graduation rates.

Math/science initiative. The district increased teacher training and developed new lessons to improve student achievement in math and science.

New principals. Hall replaced the vast majority of the district’s principals, and the district started its own training program to develop new principals.

Source: Atlanta Public Schools