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Scandal and a Schism Rattle Atlanta’s Schools
By KIM SEVERSON
Published: December 11, 2010
ATLANTA — Did any school district in the country have a tougher week than the one in Atlanta?
First, criminal investigators began digging anew into accusations of widespread cheating on state standardized tests that had been plaguing the district for two years.
The allegations, which center on dozens of employees who are suspected of changing test answers to improve scores, have already been the focus of investigations by the state and the Atlanta school system that have cost more than $1 million.
The new investigation led an influential group of black pastors to call a news conference to denounce what they say is a “witch hunt” on educators who — however misguided — were just trying to help children.
“Now we want to put teachers in jail, which is absurd,” said the Rev. Timothy McDonald, a leader of the group, the Concerned Black Clergy of Metropolitan Atlanta.
At a meeting on Monday, the group vowed to monitor the criminal investigation, and it criticized The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which first reported the cheating accusations and has thoroughly chronicled the district’s troubles.
The Atlanta school board, meanwhile, is in such disarray that a team from the regional agency that provides accreditation for the 49,000-student district showed up on Wednesday for its own investigation into whether infighting was keeping the board from governing properly.
At City Hall and in corporate offices around town, the talk is about how best to find a successor for the schools superintendent, Beverly L. Hall, who announced her resignation last month.
Dr. Hall, who has been with the district for 11 years, and people close to her said the move was long planned, but others maintained that her resignation was linked to the district’s troubles.
Civic leaders worry that finding a top candidate to take over will be daunting, given the messy state of affairs in a district that for much of last decade has been considered a model of self-improvement.
“I don’t think it is helpful to send a superintendent out the door with eggs and tomatoes thrown at her, because the person we want is somewhere with a very good job where they are appreciated and valued, and they don’t want to walk into this,” Mayor Kasim Reed said in an interview last week. “We’ve stumbled, and we need to get up and we need to get on with it.”
Mr. Reed said that he planned to stay “very involved” in the oversight of the schools and in the selection of the superintendent. He is determined, he said, to make sure that advances in student performance, graduation rates and support from corporations and community groups during Dr. Hall’s tenure were not lost because of the cheating scandal or the board’s power struggle.
The nine-member school board is locked in what appears to be a battle of egos and factions. One group is a majority that worked well with Dr. Hall. The other faction often found itself shut out of the decision-making process and became concerned about how the cheating scandal was being handled.
In the fall, a coup of sorts occurred. After a series of complicated procedural moves, the group once in control found itself out of power, and those board members filed a lawsuit claiming that the leadership takeover was illegal.
The two sides appeared to solve their differences after meeting late last month with a Fulton County Superior Court judge, but the struggle remained apparent at a board meeting on Monday, with one of the members suggesting that the new chairman, Khaatim Sherrer El, was a dictator.
The board’s conflict is at the center of whether the district can keep its accreditation, said Mark Elgart, president of the regional accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. A team from the agency arrived here on Wednesday for three days of interviews throughout the district.
“They are in a state of paralysis,” Mr. Elgart said of the school board. “They are lining up on ideological and philosophical difference, and that is no way to govern.”
The district will learn in January whether it will face sanctions or lose its accreditation, which could hurt students’ chances for getting into certain universities and securing scholarships.
Dr. Hall came to Atlanta with a reputation for solving tough problems after working as the superintendent in Newark and as a deputy chancellor of schools in New York City. She said that she spent time every day dealing with fallout from the cheating scandal, but was leaving a district that was in significantly better shape than when she arrived.
“In spite of all the noise going on, the people on the ground, the people who walk into our schools, are very pleased with our progress,” she said.
But will it be enough to attract someone to steady the ship?
“Of course I’m worried about that,” she said.
Mike Casserly, the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of 66 of the nation’s largest urban public school systems, said, “Really good candidates will look at the atmosphere that has been created, and it will give them pause.” (Dr. Hall, who was to be the next leader of the coalition’s board, will resign from it when she steps down as superintendent in June.)
“Attracting good talent is a challenge in the best of circumstances,” Mr. Casserly added. “And this is not the best of circumstances.”
By KIM SEVERSON
Published: December 11, 2010
ATLANTA — Did any school district in the country have a tougher week than the one in Atlanta?
First, criminal investigators began digging anew into accusations of widespread cheating on state standardized tests that had been plaguing the district for two years.
The allegations, which center on dozens of employees who are suspected of changing test answers to improve scores, have already been the focus of investigations by the state and the Atlanta school system that have cost more than $1 million.
The new investigation led an influential group of black pastors to call a news conference to denounce what they say is a “witch hunt” on educators who — however misguided — were just trying to help children.
“Now we want to put teachers in jail, which is absurd,” said the Rev. Timothy McDonald, a leader of the group, the Concerned Black Clergy of Metropolitan Atlanta.
At a meeting on Monday, the group vowed to monitor the criminal investigation, and it criticized The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which first reported the cheating accusations and has thoroughly chronicled the district’s troubles.
The Atlanta school board, meanwhile, is in such disarray that a team from the regional agency that provides accreditation for the 49,000-student district showed up on Wednesday for its own investigation into whether infighting was keeping the board from governing properly.
At City Hall and in corporate offices around town, the talk is about how best to find a successor for the schools superintendent, Beverly L. Hall, who announced her resignation last month.
Dr. Hall, who has been with the district for 11 years, and people close to her said the move was long planned, but others maintained that her resignation was linked to the district’s troubles.
Civic leaders worry that finding a top candidate to take over will be daunting, given the messy state of affairs in a district that for much of last decade has been considered a model of self-improvement.
“I don’t think it is helpful to send a superintendent out the door with eggs and tomatoes thrown at her, because the person we want is somewhere with a very good job where they are appreciated and valued, and they don’t want to walk into this,” Mayor Kasim Reed said in an interview last week. “We’ve stumbled, and we need to get up and we need to get on with it.”
Mr. Reed said that he planned to stay “very involved” in the oversight of the schools and in the selection of the superintendent. He is determined, he said, to make sure that advances in student performance, graduation rates and support from corporations and community groups during Dr. Hall’s tenure were not lost because of the cheating scandal or the board’s power struggle.
The nine-member school board is locked in what appears to be a battle of egos and factions. One group is a majority that worked well with Dr. Hall. The other faction often found itself shut out of the decision-making process and became concerned about how the cheating scandal was being handled.
In the fall, a coup of sorts occurred. After a series of complicated procedural moves, the group once in control found itself out of power, and those board members filed a lawsuit claiming that the leadership takeover was illegal.
The two sides appeared to solve their differences after meeting late last month with a Fulton County Superior Court judge, but the struggle remained apparent at a board meeting on Monday, with one of the members suggesting that the new chairman, Khaatim Sherrer El, was a dictator.
The board’s conflict is at the center of whether the district can keep its accreditation, said Mark Elgart, president of the regional accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. A team from the agency arrived here on Wednesday for three days of interviews throughout the district.
“They are in a state of paralysis,” Mr. Elgart said of the school board. “They are lining up on ideological and philosophical difference, and that is no way to govern.”
The district will learn in January whether it will face sanctions or lose its accreditation, which could hurt students’ chances for getting into certain universities and securing scholarships.
Dr. Hall came to Atlanta with a reputation for solving tough problems after working as the superintendent in Newark and as a deputy chancellor of schools in New York City. She said that she spent time every day dealing with fallout from the cheating scandal, but was leaving a district that was in significantly better shape than when she arrived.
“In spite of all the noise going on, the people on the ground, the people who walk into our schools, are very pleased with our progress,” she said.
But will it be enough to attract someone to steady the ship?
“Of course I’m worried about that,” she said.
Mike Casserly, the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of 66 of the nation’s largest urban public school systems, said, “Really good candidates will look at the atmosphere that has been created, and it will give them pause.” (Dr. Hall, who was to be the next leader of the coalition’s board, will resign from it when she steps down as superintendent in June.)
“Attracting good talent is a challenge in the best of circumstances,” Mr. Casserly added. “And this is not the best of circumstances.”
