Atlanta Public Schools moved forward Monday night with an ambitious and unprecedented reform strategy that will likely insulate the district from Gov. Nathan Deal's state takeover plan.
I believe the aggressive efforts by APS to avert losing schools to Deal's Opportunity School District make DeKalb Schools more vulnerable to stake takeover. While new DeKalb Superintendent Steve Green is also focusing on improving his district's lowest-performing schools, his reforms are not as dramatic as what the Atlanta school board approved last night.
Essentially, Atlanta is upending schools and allowing charter companies to reinvent them -- hopefully in a more successful way.
The vote makes Atlanta Public Schools the first in Georgia to hire charter school groups to run local public schools, charter advocates say. The plan closes three schools, including some that are succeeding by Atlanta standards. Students in the closed schools would be moved to two existing schools and a new school.
According to Bloom:
Purpose Built and Kindezi will be paid about the same amount from APS per student as other low-performing schools, according to an outline of proposed contract terms. But they'll also receive other support, like funding for "principals in training" in the years before the charter school groups take over the schools. The district will also help both groups raise money from foundations and other donors.
"All of these schools have to get on the hustle --- fast, " Carstarphen said. "We need to show dramatic improvement as quickly as possible."
A total of 27 groups applied to work with low-performing Atlanta schools, including for-profit education giant Pearson, nonprofits like Communities in Schools of Atlanta, and groups that run charter schools in Louisiana, Michigan and Tennessee. In addition to Purpose Built and Kindezi, New York-based Rensselaerville Institute was also selected. That group was awarded a contract of up to $600,000 to train teachers and principals at up to 10 schools on instruction and school culture.
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