DeKalb County Schools Superintendent Steve Green inherited a district last summer still rebounding from nearly losing accreditation amid mismanagement and $14 million in debt. But about two dozen schools are at risk of state takeover under Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposed Opportunity School District plan, which would let the state take control and, hopefully, transform poorly performing schools across the state. Voters will be asked at the polls in November whether to authorize the OSD.
Green is of the mindset that educators fix education. He tasked administrators and other professionals with addressing the ills at those schools, as well as about three dozen more he felt were on the cusp of finding themselves in the state’s crosshairs.
The plan is a litmus test of sorts for a contrasting plan being pushed by Superintendent Meria Carstarphen in Atlanta Public Schools, testing the hypothesis that outside groups can do a better job than the local school district at educating black, low-income students. Both approaches aim to turn around schools that have struggled for years to meet state and national education standards.
“We believe the answer to boosting performance lies in a most obvious place — the classroom,” Green said last month in a written commentary. “We see no single, magic answer, just a laser focus on raising the quality of instruction and learning.”
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