Commenters on the AJC Get Schooled blog expressed a range of reactions to the death of former Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall and the question of what her lasting legacy would be. Hall died before going on trial for her alleged role in the APS cheating trial. Here is a sampling of comments:
Ben: Doesn't matter what her legacy is, she's dead and so are most of the charges and accusations against those who are on trial.
Class: Beverly Hall made the same assumptions that a lot of people on the AJC Get Schooled blog do — the teacher alone can solve the problem, student and parent cooperation not needed. The teachers ask, "How can I teach an empty desk?" Beverly Hall replies. "Your students' test scores must rise or you will be fired, and I don't care how you do it." And the test scores did rise. For someone who thought of herself as "data-driven," she apparently never collected or looked at data on discipline issues, attendance, or social promotion.
BravesFan: Good for her she was never convicted and put in jail. She did nothing beyond what the average person does, which was play the system. The whole idea of turning poor urban kids into chemistry and math geniuses was nothing more than liberal fantasy.
Finn: She was hired to do what she could to fix the mess. She was not put there to make geniuses out of the normal little children, just to make their educational experience better in the ever-changing world. She may have had an impossible task, but it would have been better to never have gained an accolade than to allow a scandal of cheating that will tarnish APS for years to come.
MamaJ: Beverly Hall may have exacerbated a part of the APS problem, but the main problem was there when she arrived. The problem was underperforming parents who expected her to perform some kind of miracle when too many of them didn't actively participate in the education of their own children. You think this problem is gone since Beverly Hall is? Absolutely not. You can talk about this woman and call her names until you are blue in the face, but the problem still remains — and will, probably so, for generations to come.
Carl: APS should have never created the environment for gaming the system by paying cash bonuses to superintendents and other top level Employees based on any criteria. Civil Service/public jobs are not like investment banking on Wall Street. Once the bonus system was created, it was only a matter of time before those who benefited would figure out a way to game the system.
Southern: It may be she held the school system to high standards, but she also began to hold standardized test in disdain … and was angered by how they were used as the ultimate barometer and then went off the moral cliff.
Renia: The saddest part about Beverly Hall and the APS scandal is the lack of parental or guardian oversight. Educators can only do so much.
