A few months ago during my transition to Atlanta Public Schools, the community celebrated as the high school class of 2014 marched across the stage. Now, as we prepare for the first day of school on Monday, I am reminded of the great advice Congressman John Lewis gave at a college commencement: “You must find a way to get in trouble — good trouble, necessary trouble.”
And that’s exactly what we need to do in APS. It’s time to shift from bad trouble to good trouble.
Let’s be honest. APS has had its full share of trouble. Everyone talks about it, writes about it and studies it. We’ve been in bad trouble.
Former Superintendent Erroll Davis talked frequently about the challenges that range from ineffective feedback mechanisms, evaluation systems and controls to a tale of two school systems separated by race, class and ability. APS has been a system where pockets of academic excellence exist coupled with persistent challenges in the graduation and dropout rates. There are also the emotionally charged community conversations about ethics that lead to uncomfortable conversations about equity.
So how do we get into “good” trouble? How do we change our organizational culture so that the needs of children are the top priority? How do we address everyone’s hopes, fears and expectations about this system? How do we bring out the best in ourselves as adults so that we can bring out the best in our students?
Research and experience tell me that we must change the paradigm before changing the culture. In APS, we’re going to move from focusing on what’s wrong to what’s strong. Our goal is to become a culture where students and staff are engaged, supported and encouraged. This strength-based approach transitions from a culture of testing — which can be punitive and narrowly focused on weaknesses — to one that emphasizes the abilities and interests of the whole child. It’s time to aspire to be a district where every school builds on each student’s strengths and every teacher makes each student excited about the future.
A Gallup study found that hope is the one variable most likely to predict whether a student will complete college. When students feel hopeful, they do better in school. The same is true for adults. Therefore, across APS this year, we will build an academic and human resource success plan driven by our strengths.
One of our emerging strengths is that we have been able to inspire, support and graduate more students, many of whom are still the first in their families to graduate from high school. Our students also earn prestigious national scholarships, such as Gates Millennium, Posse and Coca-Cola. APS has increased the on-time, four-year graduation rate by 8 percentage points, from 51 percent in 2012 to 59 percent in 2013. We know we can and must do better for children.
If we’re going to ensure that many more of our students graduate on time from high school so that they can enter any career they want, we’re going to look for, confront and get into good trouble. For example, we continue to implement a 30-60-90 day action plan to attack a number of challenges — big and small — from getting all classrooms cleaned and teachers and principals hired to improving our internal operational systems.
We’re excited about launching our Day One: Be There attendance campaign in order to ensure a strong start to the school year. Approximately 5,000 of our students do not show up or are not in class receiving instruction on Day One. A day without instruction might as well be a day absent, and research tells us that absences — as few as one or two a month — add up to hurt achievement. We’re grateful to our many partner organizations and encourage others to support our attendance campaign.
Certainly, the job of educating all students in APS is a heavy lift, but I’m encouraged by the strength I’ve seen throughout Atlanta. As a school community, if we work together to get into good trouble and build on our strengths, we will overcome the most insurmountable challenges. We will become a strong system of strong schools with strong students.
