Five Atlanta schools will be subjected to state monitoring, and 40 other city schools will take a hit to their academic records in the latest fallout from the nation's largest test cheating scandal, state officials announced Wednesday.
For Parks Middle, Dobbs Elementary, Harper-Archer Middle, Kennedy Middle and Gideons Elementary, this means, among things, operating under a state-approved contract, the presence of a state school improvement specialist and more staff training.
Parents at the schools will notice a more intense focus on improving student achievement, state officials said.
The state Department of Education said these schools made adequate yearly progress (AYP), a key benchmark under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, several years in a row when they didn't deserve it, due to cheating on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests.
Most of the other schools are losing their AYP status for only 2009, the year in which the CRCT cheating was first discovered, the DOE said.
CRCT results are a key factor in the state's annual assessment of whether schools make AYP. After a report by special investigators uncovered evidence of years of cheating at 44 Atlanta Public Schools, officials with the state Department of Education announced in July that it was withholding preliminary AYP status for all of the city's schools for 2011 and would be analyzing the impact of past cheating.
The state withholds final AYP results until after summer school. On Wednesday, the DOE released final AYP for all schools, including Atlanta.
The five schools are retroactively losing the AYP status for several years -- enough to warrant the schools being put under state direction, a status that about 60 struggling schools have earned gradually.
"It's an about-face for them," said DOE spokesman Matt Cardoza, noting that some schools that had been recognized and rewarded for their academic achievement are now being classified at the highest levels of "needs improvement."
Atlanta Superintendent Erroll Davis said the state legally has the flexibility to intervene in failing schools. But he said he has spoken to state Superintendent John Barge and believes the state’s role will be more supportive.
“I welcome the increased presence. It will be people with experience in these types of situations, and obviously we need help and experience,” he said. “But neither I nor Superintendent Barge want the image conveyed that he is riding in to take over our schools.”
Schools that don’t make AYP for several years get additional money from the state to fund turnaround programs. APS schools may receive retroactive funding for the years they didn’t make AYP, Davis said.
But at the same time, these schools also could lose money that they were previously awarded for making AYP for three consecutive years. But no decision has been made yet, Cardoza said. State officials have previously said as much as $1 million might have to be repaid.
Avis King, DOE deputy superintendent for school improvement, said the school district, the five schools and the state will hammer out a contract in the next few weeks to address each school's needs.
On a case-by-case basis, the state will decide whether the principal at each school will remain or be replaced, King said.
Principals are currently not an issue. Davis has already put in interim principals.
"Our job, if we're there, is not to take over the school. We're there to support the school."
A school improvement specialist from the state will work with each school, and a team will be at each school for at least two days to assess its needs, King said. School administrators and teachers will receive extra training, she said.
This is new territory for the state, which usually gets involved with schools that have failed AYP over several years, not schools suddenly thrown into "needs improvement."
Barge said he doesn't believe parents at any of the schools will be caught off guard by the DOE's assessment, given the publicity surrounding the cheating scandal.
An encouraging sign, he said, was that about half of the schools suspected of cheating made AYP for the 2010-2011 school year.
In a report delivered to the governor in July, state investigators said 13 educators at Parks Middle School had cheated and seven had confessed. The school's principal at the time, Christopher Waller, had been lauded by former Superintendent Beverly Hall for turning around the school's poor academic performance. Investigators said Parks was one of the most egregious examples of the cheating, with evidence of retaliation against whistle-blowers, cover-ups and denials.
Denean Smith, a parent of students at Sutton Middle and North Atlanta High, said she believes the current district leadership is doing a good job, but also supports increased help from the state.
The schools affected by the cheating scandal have a stigma, she said, and allowing outside monitors will help rebuild trust.
“The only way to make sure teachers and administrators do the right thing in those buildings is to let them know the eye is on you,” said Smith, who oversees a Saturday tutoring program for struggling students at her church, New Horizon Baptist.
Seven DeKalb County schools -- among the schools already under state direction -- also could see an increase in state presence because of persistent failure to meet state standards. Those include four high schools, Clarkston, Andrews, McNair and Towers; two middle schools, Freedom and McNair; and one specialty school for disabled students.
District spokesman Walter Woods said overall, the district’s high schools are improving. Nine made AYP this year as opposed to seven last year. The district is increasingly concerned about elementary schools -- 44 made AYP this year compared with 62 last year.
That’s due in large part to deficiencies in the math curriculum, Woods said. Plans to address those problems are already in the works.
“We’re seeing a complete overhaul in math curriculum, starting now,” he said.
Other metro area schools eligible for intense state intervention include Lovejoy Middle in Clayton County, Osborne High in Cobb County and Phoenix High in Gwinnett, a nontraditional high school.
Staff writer Ernie Suggs contributed to this article.
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s investigative reporters broke the story about cheating in Atlanta Public Schools in 2008, and we’ve continued digging ever since. Our commitment to bringing you complete coverage continues with this report.
AYP results
The state Department of Education released final data Wednesday, showing how many schools made adequate yearly progress, a key benchmark of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Summer graduates and retests on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests helped boost the overall performance of schools for the year, but they still weren’t as good as last year. State officials have attributed the setbacks to a new math test and the increased passage requirements.
Here’s how schools shaped up on the final AYP report.
- Statewide, 72.71 percent of all schools made AYP in 2011, more than the 63.2 percent reported in this year's preliminary results, but less than the 77.17 percent that made it last year.
- 31 schools came off the needs improvement list, including Clayton County's Pointe South Middle School, DeKalb County's Dunwoody High School, Atlanta Public Schools' South Atlanta Law and Social Justice School and Venetian Hills Elementary School.
- 100 percent of the schools made AYP in 49 school systems.
- The number of high schools making AYP this year was 41.45 percent, compared with 40.88 percent last year.
- The number of middle schools making AYP this year was 70.6 percent, compared with 78.53 percent last year.
- The number of elementary schools making AYP this year was 83.09 percent, compared with 87.87 percent last year.
Metro highlights
Gwinnett: Four schools previously not making AYP met the standards — Creekland Middle, McConnell Middle, Duluth High and Ferguson Elementary.
Cobb: Nine more schools made AYP — Sprayberry and Wheeler high schools, Cooper and Tapp middle schools and Brumby, Clay, Fair Oaks, Powder Springs and Powers Ferry elementary schools.
Cherokee: Five additional schools made AYP —Hasty, Holly Springs and Johnston elementary schools and Creekland and Dean Rusk middle schools.
Note: AYP is the formula used to determine if schools are meeting expectations under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. It consists of three parts — test participation, academic achievement and another statistic, called a “second indicator.” All students at a school, as well as any qualifying subgroup of students, must meet goals in all three categories in order to “make AYP.” Schools that do not make AYP for two consecutive years in the same subject are placed in “needs improvement” status and face escalating consequences.
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