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ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS TODAY

Atlanta Public Schools is one of the top-performing urban school systems in America. When students pass through our doors and embark upon a journey toward academic excellence, we give them the confidence, social skills and intellectual capacity required to successfully compete in college and in the global marketplace.

The value associated with the world-class urban education that we are committed to providing all of our students began in 1999, when we focused our efforts on reforming our elementary schools. Our efforts yielded significant results. In fact, APS is the only large, urban school district in the nation to have 100 percent of its elementary schools make Adequate Yearly Progress under the No Child Left Behind Act.

HIGH SCHOOL TRANSFORMATION
Leveraging successes and lessons learned from our elementary school reform strategies, and with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we began to focus on improving our high schools. Research revealed that secondary students learn better in smaller, more personalized settings. The opening of The New Schools at Carver was our first bold step toward transforming high schools, both structurally and academically. Using Carver as a blueprint, we opened four small schools each on the campuses of South Atlanta and Therrell in August 2007. In August 2008, Maynard Holbrook Jackson High School (formerly Southside High School) transformed into a campus of small learning communities (SLCs). In 2009, Douglass will also be transformed into a campus of SLCs and Washington will become a campus of small schools. In 2010, Grady, Mays and North Atlanta high schools officially transformed into SLCs.

This year, the large, comprehensive public high school will be a dinosaur in Atlanta. All of our high schools offer small, personalized environments that provide rigorous and engaging learning opportunities to adequately prepare every student. Our goal is to provide an engaging environment that fosters student achievement and ensures that we graduate at least 90% of ninth graders in four years.

MIDDLE SCHOOL TRANSFORMATION
As we continue our efforts to enhance the academic experience at our elementary and high schools, we are also beginning our transformation work at the middle school level. The response to the opening of our two ground-breaking single-gender academies - the B.E.S.T. Academy at Ben Carson and the Coretta Scott King Young Women's Leadership Academy - has been overwhelming. Both schools opened in August 2007 with sixth grade and will continue to add a grade every year until 12th grade. Although not every middle school will follow the single-gender model, all schools will offer engaging, quality instruction and support to prepare students for success beyond graduation.

TARGETED REFORM MODELS
Implementing school-level targeted reform models will allow us to sustain our gains and continue to effectively serve our students. However, we understand that in order to provide all of our students with a world-class education, we need to enhance our mathematics and science curriculum. With the support of a $22.5 million grant from the GE Foundation, we are implementing instructional foundational strategies to support a comprehensive implementation of the Mathematics and Science Initiative. We are attracting top-notch math and science educators and private-industry experts who value their craft. In addition, we are delivering captivating math and science lessons that will generate renewed widespread interest in mathematics and science.

APS reform models at the elementary level are clearly impacting the lives of our students. Early indicators show that our high school transformation work is yielding positive returns. And we are confident that our middle school transformation work, coupled with our Mathematics and Science Initiative, will produce the necessary results that demonstrate our commitment to excellence in education for all students.

We are making a difference.