Five ways to improve Atlanta’s public schools

RELATED: How to fix Atlanta’s public schools: Start with parents

Of the more than 80 responses to the AJC's request for suggestions, about a third focused on requiring, strongly encouraging or helping parents to do more. About as many respondents focused on parents as on teachers or students. But improving teaching is still important, many respondents said.

Here’s a sampling of your suggestions:

1. Alumni

Pray and get successful alumni from APS more involved for a stipend, of course.

2. Parent volunteers

I would begin by requiring an adult representative(s) from a child(ren’s) household to volunteer their time, at least 50 hours at their school for the calendar year. This could include reading to the students, assisting in the cafeteria, assisting in the media center, volunteering in an area for school functions or festivities, answering the phones or greeting guests at the front office, monitoring halls and bathrooms, afterschool programs, maintaining bulletin boards, outside beautification of building (decor, flowers, garden) etc. I think some of these items would eventually be fun as the parents work together and get to know each other. This positive energy might even spread throughout the community.

In an effort to change the perception of our children and our schools, we must start at home with some accountability. APS can provide small training workshops over the summer and during the school year to ensure that ALL of our parents/guardians have some type of training or orientation prior to going into the schools.

3. Year-round school

Eliminate summer vacation. These kids need to be in school year round. They lose skills every summer . Extend the hours so that they remain for an hour or two with helpers who will sit with them and supervise and help with homework. This could be done on rotation where maybe every third or fourth week a teacher has to stay in the afternoons. The increased student teacher ratio would be okay because they should be working on things they were already taught that day. Offer store gift cards to parents when their children perform well on tests. This would incentivize them to help their children study at night and corporations could sponsor the gift cards.

4. Black-centric educational experiences

Provide more black-centric educational experiences. These students are being made to assume the position and are not acclimatized to experiences beyond their neighborhoods, or to experiences that present the positive accomplishments of blacks. Also, generational poverty is only one part of that problem — these kids don’t have a lot of solid extended family to rely on. Georgia does not want to acknowledge that there has been a population shift. Many of the students moving here were already in generational poverty when they arrived, and Atlanta has become increasingly poorer. Provide some Parent University Courses — badgify the experiences and allow them to translate into something tangible for their child. Perhaps that would help to motivate both parent and student. Teachers can only work with the clay they are given.

5. School-based staff

I would take as many of the certified employees in the downtown central office performing nonessential roles and place them in low performing schools to create small class sizes, create individual or group tutoring services, and provide on-site support to administrators. All other nonessential employees that were not certified would be replaced with certified employees and placed in the schools. I would require all unemployed parents of students in the school to become involved in the school to perform vital services — working in the lunch room, janitorial services, lawn/landscape services and general facilities maintenance.

(Responses have been edited for length and style.)

RELATED: How to fix Atlanta’s public schools: Start with parents