APS parents must remain vigilant

For almost a decade, APS billed itself as delivering a world-class education. As an APS parent, I believed — until the state questioned APS’ testing and data and the system became the headline story that would not stop.

Over the past two years, some seemed more intent on distorting the issues, hiding the truth, elevating dysfunction and turning public education into a political battlefield, rather than meeting students’ educational needs.

Under intense scrutiny from SACS and when it most counted, the board hired Erroll B. Davis Jr. as superintendent. His credibility and experience put a fresh face on a battered system, provided balance to the board that helped save APS’ accreditation, and allowed the system to navigate forward. For the system’s good, many whose names were associated with the past left.

With a new leader, APS acted swiftly to replace teachers, principals and staff implicated in the state CRCT cheating report. Davis’ team developed an intervention plan to remediate students who may have been affected by cheating and included others not meeting state standards. APS must fully fund and implement it with fidelity. As APS analyzes student data in late spring, it must support each student until they have made the required progress.

APS must develop a five-year plan for the system based on data and not the allure of grant funding.

Davis and his leadership team must continue their evaluation of the system’s data to determine where student achievement and progress actually stand. They must also learn which reforms work and which do not, which policies and procedures promote the system’s work and which hinder it, which educators are effective and which need to seek other employment. They also need to learn how best to provide services to the system’s shifting demographics, how to provide equity in education throughout the system, how to make headquarters leaner and more efficient, and how to balance the budget in a period of economic downturn.

Whatever the results, APS must communicate them in a timely fashion and with transparency to the public in order to regain trust and confidence. Parents must become partners with the system by bearing equal responsibility for educating our children, holding the system accountable, and ensuring that politics do not overshadow the board and once again jeopardize our accreditation.