The new school year begins over the next couple of weeks for most metro Atlanta students, but last week offered several significant developments on the education front in the region.
Here are a few:
It was not a good week for Georgia Tech. Four top Tech officials are out after internal audits found they had improper relationships with vendors, misused resources or violated other ethics rules or state laws. Additionally, news emerged that staffers mistakenly emailed to students a spreadsheet containing personal data of about 8,000 Georgia Tech College of Computing students.
Back to school … in July. Students in the Commerce and Jefferson city school districts returned for the first day of school on Friday. The new school year starts Monday in two metro Atlanta districts: Henry and Rockdale counties.
Georgia Milestones data released. State education department officials released data Friday that showed slight gains in two key areas, English for younger students and math for those about to enter high school. However, more than 60 percent of third- and eighth-graders did not reach the top academic categories in English.
Questions linger over education job revocation. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms' office is keeping mum over its last-minute decision to rescind a job offer to Aliya Bhatia to become the city's first chief education officer. City officials have declined to discuss why they pulled the job offer. The job offer was rescinded in an email sent from the city's human resources department on the day Bhatia was to start her new position.
Georgia Democrats choose their superintendent candidate. Military contractor Otha Thornton won the Democratic Party runoff Tuesday for state school superintendent. Thornton will face incumbent Richard Woods, a Republican, in the November general election.
