In a gamble to fix a dysfunctional school ahead of a potential state takeover, Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Meria Carstarphen merged one of the city's best high schools with one of its worst.
Combining Carver School of Technology, where about half of students graduate, with Carver Early College, where nearly every student goes on to a four-year college, tests the theory that threatening schools with extreme sanctions leads to rapid changes for the better — the theory behind Gov. Nathan Deal’s Opportunity School District plan. If voters approve that plan this fall, the state could take control of schools like the School of Technology.
If Carstarphen's gamble pays off, hundreds of students will get better educations. Deal will be proven right. Carver staff will be hailed for beating the odds of urban education.
If it fails, it will cripple a school that has sent hundreds of students — nearly all of them African-American, and most of them low-income — to some of the nation’s top colleges.
“They say they’re combining schools, but the reality is that they’ve gotten rid of their top performing school by combining it with the lowest performing school,” said Sandra Bethea, whose daughter attends Carver Early College. “They’ve set the school up for failure.”
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