Since then, many school districts have indeed announced closures, including in the communities of and, where we live and work. More, unfortunately, are on their way.

School closure announcements can elicit the worst kind of deja vu. These feelings are well-founded. Atlanta plans to shutter schools in the south and west parts of the city, which is also where overwhelmingly live and where previous closures left several buildings vacant or underutilized for years. In Philadelphia, found that achievement gains occurred only when displaced students were moved into significantly stronger schools, while peers sent to schools of similar or lower quality did not benefit and, in some cases, saw setbacks.

It doesn鈥檛 have to be like this. Districts may have to close schools for financial or performance reasons, but they don鈥檛 need to exacerbate inequities along the way. By learning from past examples, we believe it鈥檚 possible 鈥� with thoughtful, comprehensive planning and deep and broad community engagement 鈥� for school closures to serve as a new opportunity for students, families and educators. 

The first of four steps to a more constructive, less harmful closure is about stabilization. The time between when a closure is announced and when students move out of the school can produce learning loss, staff instability and family stress. 

These in-between periods are not trivial lengths of time. Students at one Philadelphia school included in the district鈥檚 January announcement will . In other words, the students who are currently in kindergarten at this school are poised to spend their entire elementary years 鈥� through fifth-grade 鈥� in a school the district has said should close due to its low enrollment and poor facilities.聽

That鈥檚 a long time, especially considering students are impacted as soon as the closure is announced. found that the largest negative achievement effect occurred between the time when the closure was announced and when students actually moved to new schools. Students in schools that were being closed had scores that were lower than expected in the year of the closure: roughly in math.

To avoid this drop-off, districts can commit to maintaining through the school鈥檚 final year. They can also help reduce staff turnover by providing early clarity on placement processes, minimizing uncertainty about job security and offering retention support. 

The second step has to do with the building itself. Again, found that neighborhoods that experienced school closures led to and lower shared sense of capacity for neighbors to act together for the common good. Schools often serve as community anchors, and closing a school can make a community feel unmoored. Countering this outcome involves smart, collaborative planning to ensure buildings are invested in, not abandoned. By this measure, Philadelphia and Atlanta are off to a positive start; their closure plans include repurposing buildings for other uses, such as in Philadelphia and in Atlanta.聽

The third step is about student learning, particularly ensuring students leaving a closing school can attend a higher-quality alternative. This focus shifts the conversation from the non-academic factors that often drive closure decisions 鈥� like building utilization rates and the cost to repair aging facilities 鈥� and instead centers on student learning. Administrators must ask: Which local public schools could take in displaced students without reducing the quality of their education? 

This is not a quixotic exercise. Studies from multiple cities have when students are able to transfer to demonstrably stronger schools with higher achievement levels, more experienced teachers, richer course offerings and better facilities.聽

The fourth and final step is about the schools receiving new students. Especially with the months and, in many cases, years between when a closure is announced and when it takes place, there is no reason receiving schools should be caught flat-footed. These schools should have both academic and social-emotional support available for students, and districts should cap how many new students each school receives. The odds of giving individuals the support they need decrease with each additional student an institution takes in.

What we are calling for is a paradigm shift. District leaders need to begin shifting from announcing 鈥渨e鈥檝e decided to close schools鈥� to 鈥渨e鈥檝e decided to close schools and for preventing harm and maximizing student opportunity at every stage.鈥�

District leaders in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and elsewhere deserve credit for recognizing the trends and taking action. What鈥檚 important for these and other leaders to recognize, however, is that their work is just beginning. 

Atlanta

In a once-thriving neighborhood in the southeast part of Atlanta, Lakewood Elementary served families who came to work at the General Motors assembly plant, a sprawling 100-acre landmark that became a path toward economic mobility for entry-level workers. At its height in the late 1970s, the plant employed as many as 5,700 people. 

But by the early 鈥�90s, when Gloria Hawkins-Wynn moved into the community, signs of decline were evident. The last Chevy Caprice rolled off the assembly line in 1990, and a popular antique market at the now-defunct Lakewood Fairgrounds shut down in 2006. The closure of the elementary school two years earlier further contributed to neighborhood blight, turning the abandoned structure into a hotspot for criminal activity.

鈥淲e get prostitution. We get drug dealing. We get drive-by shootings,鈥� Hawkins-Wynn told four years ago. A neighborhood representative, she urged city leaders to turn the eyesore over to a developer. 

Former students begged the city to save the school, home to some of their earliest : Dick and Jane books, dances in the auditorium, a principal named Mr. Hinkle. Still visible on the school鈥檚 deserted playground is a faded map of the United States.

鈥淧lease don鈥檛 demolish it,鈥� wrote one woman. Walking to Lakewood with her mother, who died when she was 7, is a cherished memory. 

Now the old school is one of several in Atlanta It鈥檚 a transformation that is increasingly taking place across the country as city leaders and developers look to give new life to vacant buildings once bustling with students and teachers.

In 2024, nearly 2,000 apartments were built in former schools across the U.S., a record high and four times the number a year earlier, according to from RentCafe, a property search website. School-to-apartment conversions are now the fastest growing segment of a niche industry devoted to makeovers of historic spaces. 

As student enrollment nationwide and more districts, including Atlanta, make the painful decision to close schools, the Lakewood project offers a glimpse of what鈥檚 to come: Seventy-four school conversion projects are already underway across the country, RentCafe鈥檚 data shows. With enrollment loss in traditional schools , districts will be left with even more surplus properties. 

Renovating existing structures 鈥渙ffers a way to help those buildings continue on as community assets,鈥� said Patrice Frey, president and CEO of RePurpose Capital, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

For the first time since the Great Depression, renovation projects, including historic preservation, surpassed new construction in 2022, according to the . Supply chain gridlock and 鈥渢he rapid escalation of materials costs鈥� likely contributed to the shift, Frey said.

The pandemic also played a part as parents chose charter schools or uprooted to other districts and states to find in-person learning. The rapid expansion of private school choice has also contributed to enrollment declines, school consolidations and closures.

Data from the Brookings Institution showed that between the 2018-19 and 2021-22 school years, 12% of elementary schools and 9% of middle schools lost at least one-fifth of their students. Many districts delayed closures in response to parents and generations of former students who pleaded with leaders to keep the neighborhood institutions open. Some districts, , are still putting it off.

But maintaining underenrolled schools, especially those with just a couple hundred students, can be a financial drain. The , and districts are among those that have recently announced or discussed closures. That means they鈥檒l eventually have to decide what to do with the buildings.

An earlier Atlanta project, completed in 1999, offers a preview of what鈥檚 in store for Lakewood and many other former schools. was redeveloped into Bass Lofts, a three-story structure that sits in a bohemian neighborhood known for vintage clothing stores, dive bars and record shops. Mallory Brooks, a photographer, moved into one of the units 10 years ago after relocating from Florida.

鈥淚t was the first place I looked at, and I was definitely smitten,鈥� she said. Stepping through the main entrance, 鈥測ou are transported immediately to being in a school.鈥� 

Old lockers, welded shut, line the ground floor hallways, and a large Depression-era mural of women dancing sits above the stage in the auditorium. While rows of seats remain intact, some tenants also use the space to store their bikes. Brooks appreciates how sunlight pours through the 10-foot-high windows 鈥� 鈥淚’ve been able to basically create a greenhouse in my apartment,鈥� she said. But regulating the temperature is difficult, and she looks forward to HVAC upgrades. 

鈥楲egacy residents鈥�

Lakewood Elementary is one of eight sites that the Atlanta Public Schools is now repurposing through an agreement with the Atlanta Urban Development Corp., a nonprofit arm of the city鈥檚 housing authority that renovates historic properties into mixed-income residences. The plan, part of to increase affordable housing, includes giving teachers the first choice of apartments. That was important to Cynthia Briscoe Brown, a former Atlanta Board of Education member whose last vote in December was to . 

鈥淪eventy percent of APS employees do not live within the city limits of Atlanta,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ne of the board’s priorities in developing these properties is to make it possible for our employees to not have to drive so far before their work day.鈥� 

A lawyer with experience in real estate, she took an interest in the dilapidated properties when she was first elected in 2013. But she also has personal ties to the site where Peeples Street Elementary, one of the eight former schools, once stood. Her father, Woodson Briscoe, attended the school, which sat just down the street from the boarding house, run by an aunt, where the family lived. 

鈥淭his was the Depression. They were a young couple with a family, and they couldn’t afford their own house,鈥� she said. Today, as in the neighborhood climb, with some homes priced well over $500,000, families are facing the same problem. 鈥淭he West End is gentrifying to a point where a lot of legacy residents are having trouble staying.鈥� 

鈥楢 pall over neighborhoods鈥� 

Peeples Street closed in 1982. has been gone for 30 years, torn down after a fire left little worth saving.

But some shuttered schools can sit vacant for decades, attracting crime and casting 鈥渁 pall over neighborhoods,鈥� Alyn Turner, a sociologist with Research for Action, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit, told a group of Atlanta leaders in February. 

In a hotel east of downtown, they gathered in a dining room to discuss ways to lessen the negative impacts of the upcoming closures on both students and the neighborhoods where they live.

Turner cited a showing that between 2005 and 2013, 12 urban districts, including Atlanta, Chicago and Pittsburgh, sold, leased or repurposed 267 school properties, but still had more than 300 on the market. 

School closures 鈥渢end to concentrate in communities that have already experienced displacement and disinvestment,鈥� she said. 鈥淧eople can experience a closure as yet another signal of neighborhood decline.鈥�

In Gary, Indiana, a rising number of 911 calls near abandoned schools 鈥� an almost 600% increase between 2022 and 2024. They found fires, hundreds of requests for extra police patrols and 26 reports of 鈥渟hots fired.鈥澛� In 2015, a was found dead in Emerson High School, a Four years later, three teenagers fatally shot a woman and in an emptied-out elementary school.

Like any abandoned building, a boarded-up old school can 鈥減rovide cover鈥� for criminals, according to at Arizona State University. Run-down, vacant structures can even escalate criminal behavior, they write, sending a message that no one owns or cares about the property.

Maintaining former school buildings until they鈥檙e sold or repurposed can make the neighborhood feel safer, Turner told the Atlanta group. But like Briscoe Brown, some participants said they worry about the opposite effect 鈥� gentrification that leaves some lower-income families behind.

鈥淗ow can you help the people who are still there?鈥� asked Femi Johnson, a senior director at Achieve Atlanta, a nonprofit that focuses on college access. 鈥淐an it be a food bank? Can it be a community health center?鈥�

In her hometown of Philadelphia, she saw the former Edward Bok Vocational School, part of a wave of closures in 2013, transformed into an event space with , a destination she felt didn鈥檛 serve the community鈥檚 needs.

Developers are drawn to former schools because of their historic architectural features, like wide hallways and stairwells. The former Monsignor Coyle High School in Taunton, Massachusetts, now , boasts 鈥渟oaring ceilings鈥� and original windows. 

Tax credits for historic preservation can offset some of the costs of modernization, but come with restrictions on what developers can change and which 鈥渃haracter-defining features,鈥� like a gymnasium, must go untouched, said Pittsburgh developer Rick Belloli.

In 2022, his company, Q Development, Mt. Alvernia, a former Sisters of St. Francis convent and all-girls school north of Pittsburgh. He described the massive, 333-room main building, the Motherhouse, as 鈥渁 gloriously spectacular historic building鈥� with cast iron stairways and arched ceilings. But he鈥檚 still navigating the approval process, and some developers, he said, avoid former schools because of those hurdles. 

鈥楥hoice properties鈥�

Like Coyle and Mt. Alvernia, many of the school-to-apartment conversions are concentrated in the northeast and midwest. Columbus, Ohio, ranked first on of cities with the most school conversion projects. 

Next on the list is Cleveland, where the former Martin Luther King Jr. High School, in the predominantly Black , was among those affected by more recent enrollment loss. In 2020, the district , which had dropped to less than 350 students, and a Maryland-based developer for $880,000.

Exploring one of Cleveland鈥檚 abandoned high school鈥檚

Last fall, knowing the building might be demolished, former students gathered to reflect and grab what mementos they could. Some cut strings off the basketball hoops, said Ronald Crosby, who attended in the late 1980s. Others took old library cards and team jerseys. 

Ronald鈥檚 sister Johnetta Crosby has fond memories of the school. 鈥淲e had teachers that took their time to make sure you learned,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f you didn’t have anything to wear, they made sure you did. If you couldn’t afford to eat lunch, they fed you anyway.鈥�

D鈥橝ngelo Dixon, who graduated in 2018, felt more conflicted. 鈥淏lack stuff鈥� leaked from the ceiling, he remembered, and academically, he felt behind friends who attended other schools. 

鈥淥nce I went to college, I felt like I didn’t know anything,鈥� he said. But he credited the school鈥檚 career-tech program with inspiring him to work in health care. He鈥檚 now a nursing assistant. At the alumni gathering last year, he headed for the art room to grab a ceiling tile he painted with his nickname, Delo 鈥� part of a senior class assignment.

Some alumni hoped the developer, Kareem Abdus-Salaam, would save the building but that鈥檚 not part of his vision for the new residential community, a mix of apartments, townhomes and retail space.

鈥淚 really want to just level the whole site and bring it up, almost like a phoenix rising from the ashes,鈥� he said. He expects to break ground this spring. 鈥淭here are so many abandoned schools in this country that are sitting on choice properties.鈥�

He does, however, intend to make use of the large stones that still border one corner of the property by crushing them into gravel for a quarter-mile walking trail that will wind through the development. Along that pathway, he plans to erect signposts with historical photos of the school so former students 鈥渃an have some feeling of yesteryear.鈥� 

In Atlanta, the partnership between the school district and the city gives officials a say in what the developers preserve. They鈥檒l integrate the original Lakewood Elementary building into the overall design. 

With a strip of commercial properties on the corner, including a popular restaurant and coffee shop, Hawkins-Wynn, who still lives a few blocks away, hopes the redevelopment will spur even more investment in the neighborhood.

On a recent afternoon, the transition was obvious, but so were the obstacles in its path. As she walked the perimeter of the property, a construction crew put up plywood on a new home across the street. A few lots down, trash and discarded mattresses piled up on the curb.

鈥淭his is why we need redevelopment,鈥� she said, pointing to the debris. 鈥淚t’s still shady around here, but it鈥檚 changing like you won’t believe.鈥� 

Meanwhile, officials in New York City, home to America’s largest school district, are getting acclimated to their fifth leader in 10 years after the most recent superintendent abruptly resigned amid multiple investigations. In Atlanta, where I live, we鈥檙e on our fifth superintendent in the last decade as well.

Cincinnati; San Diego; Yonkers, New York, and other urban districts have also experienced turnover this year. According to , roughly 20% of the superintendents in the largest 500 school districts change each year, an increase from the 14% to 16% range by the School Superintendents Association.

Amid all these changes in leadership, the education nonprofit I lead has learned to partner with superintendents while they are in place, as well as make sure that when turnover does happen, the churn doesn鈥檛 become a distraction and impede student progress. The key to success is making sure leadership is not held by a single person within a single organization 鈥� especially since most superintendents end up being short-term presences 鈥� but by many people who are stalwarts and have deep roots in the community. 

Here are three primary lessons we’ve learned: 

First, invest in community members. If the superintendent is the be-all and end-all for education leadership, a community will be decimated whenever a transition occurs. But if there is a deep bench of leaders, a change becomes more of a ripple and less of a tsunami. That鈥檚 one reason we prioritize creating and maintaining relationships with board of education members and school leaders, who are often at their posts long before and after any particular superintendent. They can stay focused on students’ day-to-day concerns and successes while leadership is being sorted out.

To understand the issues within neighborhood schools, we hold regular community dialogues and invest in a to help parents and guardians get involved. Over the course of nine months, participants learn about the history of Atlanta Public Schools, explore student achievement trends and identify opportunities to partner with communities to award grant funds. This year, for example, to community-driven aimed at improving college and career readiness for marginalized youth. Over time, participants in the fellowship realize their power and use it to take on parent leadership roles at their children鈥檚 school and when meeting with officials to explore the levers that drive systemic change for all of Atlanta鈥檚 children.

These grassroots supporters helped our advocacy efforts during a superintendent search by building awareness about how critical it is for the Atlanta Board of Education to hire the right candidate. The fellows attended board meetings and other sessions to inform the community about why the district needs a superintendent with an appetite for change. 

This distributed model of leadership creates a broad base and reduces the chance that any single disruption will cause undue volatility for students, families and educators.

Second, engage families by decentralizing decision-making authority beyond the traditional school district. In Atlanta, public charter schools enable thousands of families to choose the school that is best for their children and insulate them from any tumult at the district level. Most of these schools are part of 鈥� yet have some distance from 鈥� the school district; charter schools can be authorized locally and approved by the school board.

Yet charters are not a panacea. Launching a new one takes years, and getting in can involve lotteries and waitlists. That鈥檚 why we developed a resource, the , to give Metro Atlanta parents a user-friendly way to access publicly available data about student progress and relevant priorities at their children鈥檚 schools. Parents can use this data to advocate for improvements at the school and district levels, or to find an alternative, such as through an intra-district transfer.This democratizes data in a way that helps parents understand whether and which public school is the best fit for their child, regardless of fit. 

By having more options and more information, families take back power. 

Third, establish goals and guardrails. New superintendents tend to conduct listening tours before unveiling their own strategic plan; months and sometimes years pass between the announcement of one superintendent’s departure and clarity about what the next one will prioritize. When this process goes quickly, it can lead to whiplash for a school district鈥檚 stakeholders; when it lags, it can lead to paralysis in schools and among community partners whose work with students or teachers relies on its alignment with district priorities.

In Atlanta and in cities such as , Ohio, and , school boards have voted to establish accountability policies 鈥� 鈥� that focus on student outcomes.  In Atlanta, this policy grew out of a series of community conversations about transparency and a focus on students, not adults. Board members devote significant time each month to monitoring progress, and schools that do not meet academic growth goals are required to take significant action to drive improvement. As these parameters are data-driven, they are more objective than decisions that are influenced by the personal opinions or whims of a single leader.

Leaders come and go, and there is only so much that can be done to mitigate the resulting transitions. Taking these three steps can help minimize the impact a superintendent transition has on a community.

On this point, we are failing as a nation. Though , only 1 in 5 and share the same racial or ethnic background. At the district level, .

Much has been written about the need to diversify the pipeline of future educators. Less discussed 鈥� and arguably even more important 鈥� is the reality that educators of color are thinking about leaving their jobs, or education altogether. They desperately need help, right here, right now.

Run-of-the-mill support won鈥檛 cut it. Faced with , leaders of color need guidance and tools specific to their experiences navigating the schools as people of color. When leaders of color thrive, so do and .

We are fortunate to have access to this type of support, regularly meeting with more than a dozen other men of color who work as school and district leaders through .

For us, coming together in community with a group of guys who get what we鈥檙e going through has been life-changing. We love our jobs, but sometimes they don鈥檛 love us back. This can be exhausting and demoralizing. Dedicated space just for us affords us the chance to reflect on our experiences and to exhale, regroup and re-energize our leadership. This experience is not the norm. 

These discussions are anchored in the , a flexible roadmap to help educators of color navigate leadership journeys. The research-backed tool articulates 10 essential competencies 鈥� knowledge, skills, mindsets, dispositions and behaviors 鈥� that interviews with more than 300 education leaders of color across the country revealed are most critical to their success. This resource is focused specifically on fostering resilience among educators of color and reinforcing steady, confident leadership in the face of many distinct challenges.

How can districts tailor similar development and support for educators of color?

In Atlanta, I (Dr. Hunter) lead many courses. For each essential competency, I鈥檝e identified and created aligned professional development opportunities that enable our guys to unpack key concepts, pause and reflect on their responses to various scenarios, and get real practice being both proactive and reactive to a range of leadership dilemmas. Eighteen aspiring leaders come together once or twice a month for these sessions, which take place at the district office during the week and at the Georgia State University Principals Center on weekends. Leadership coaches also provide 1:1 virtual support.

As one example, take the Executive Stance competency. Mastering that just-right balance between confidence and humility is crucial when helping families feel secure in the face of a crisis or when asking staff to lean into new ways of working together. Being assertive without coming across as 鈥渁ggressive鈥� looks different for a man of color than it does for, say, a white woman. The goal is to empower team members to lead in ways that are true to their identities and will be received well by their communities. All leaders 鈥� especially those of color 鈥� need opportunities to practice to get their unique Executive Stance just right. The Atlanta Public Schools leadership team wants principals across the district hitting home runs when they鈥檙e on the job, and the best way to make that happen is by giving leaders as many at-bats as possible with all the curveballs we know are coming their way.

In Los Angeles, I (Dr. Nava) offer professional development to educators of color in alignment with the district 鈥檚 focus on cultivating a diverse, well-supported workforce. The district is unusual in that it runs a two-year principal induction program in house 鈥� the Los Angeles Administrative Services Credential program, which is approved by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Participants serve in administrative roles, complete assignments at their schools and receive 40 hours of leadership coaching each year .Since 2016, 600 educators have participated in the program.

Men of color make up about 20% of the program’s participants, and many are responsible for managing athletics or school discipline. These are important functions for a school, but an educator who doesn鈥檛 have instructional leadership experience will not be prepared for the principalship. Through the program, I help aspiring leaders of color share their professional goals with their principals and advocate for opportunities to observe and practice instructional leadership. For example, a participant might request to assist the principal in executing a data review session with the math department and to shadow the principal before, during and after a subsequent classroom observation to more deeply understand the planning protocols and the coaching and feedback process.

If a principal is unable to provide on-site learning, I ensure that aspiring leaders gain meaningful experience elsewhere, such as by mentoring novice teachers or leading district-run training sessions. I pair this real-world practice with coaching, where I teach, model and dig into the essential competencies in ways that reflect each leader鈥檚 personal and professional goals. 

Overall, we both prioritize pushing leaders of color to engage in purposeful self-reflection around the essential leadership competencies. Having a conversation with oneself 鈥� by writing in a journal or reflecting aloud 鈥� can be really hard, especially when thinking about a mistake or misstep. But doing it surrounded by others who鈥檝e been there and can help illuminate often-overlooked strengths feels safer. 

Most importantly, this work has reaffirmed for each of us a deep commitment to cultivating the next generation of leaders for American schools and society by promoting a more diverse and inclusive vision of extraordinary leadership. Our students deserve nothing less.

Staring down the nearly 80-year history of modern suburbia, Herold finds that the effort produced mostly 鈥渄isposable communities鈥� across the country. While they served their first few sets of residents 鈥� his family included 鈥� they have failed to deliver the promise of the American Dream to the families of color who followed. Case in point: He notes that in the north of Dallas, where his reporting takes him, Black mortgage loan applications are now denied at a rate 23 percentage points higher than those of white applicants with similar incomes.

And while many families sought suburban homes in large part for their superior schools, even that isn鈥檛 a given anymore, he finds 鈥� especially if you鈥檙e not white or born in the U.S.A. Instead of an educational upgrade, he reports, many families now find troubled, underfunded schools, intractable bureaucracies, teachers鈥� union contracts that make 鈥渁ny wholesale changes difficult鈥� and, perhaps worst of all, maddening discrimination in the very place where they鈥檇 sought refuge.

A longtime Education Week staffer who now teaches journalism at Temple University, Herold spent four years examining the historical record and found a pattern: As suburbs age, municipal revenues often fall, even as the costs of maintaining infrastructure rise. An 鈥渆ntrenched culture of political backscratching and can-kicking鈥� exacerbates these problems.

In one suburban district in Evanston, Ill., outside of Chicago, crusading superintendent Paul Goren tells Herold, 鈥淚 landed in a district that had a foundation of quicksand. It was wobbly on the instructional side, with lots of people doing their own thing because that was what they had done for years. We were [also] facing some level of financial doom.鈥�  

Eventually, Herold writes, what befell so many suburbs was what he calls a 鈥�relentless cycle of racialized development and decline that took root after World War II, then sucked huge swaths of the country into a pattern of slash-and-burn development that functioned like a Ponzi scheme.鈥�

His book, out Tuesday, follows five diverse families in suburban Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. He actually grew up in the Penn Hills neighborhood east of Pittsburgh, and finds one of his subjects just three doors down from his childhood home.

Herold spent years getting to know these families, offering a deeply reported and closely observed account of five families鈥� struggles to capture what his family so easily enjoyed. 

社区黑料鈥檚 Greg Toppo caught up with Herold earlier this month.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

社区黑料: You note at the outset that you鈥檙e a suburban kid, raised in Penn Hills. Things for you went as they were supposed to. Yet you report that your dad ended up selling your childhood home in 2014 for one-fourth of what it was worth, to a guy he met on Craigslist. Is this the inevitable fate of inner-ring suburbs like yours? What鈥檚 at play here? Why don鈥檛 suburbs work anymore, and how do public schools play a part in this failure?

Benjamin Herold: Suburbia worked great for my middle-class white family and millions of others like us who received guaranteed mortgage loans, massive tax breaks and sparkling new infrastructure, including public schools we got decades to mold in our own image. But all that was made possible by trading short-term wealth for massive debts and liabilities that we pushed off on to future generations. Eventually, the bills come due. That鈥檚 what we鈥檙e seeing now.

You write that America鈥檚 suburbs since World War II have resembled a kind of Ponzi scheme that has stuck later investors with the bill. So we鈥檙e in the 鈥渁fter鈥� part of the cycle, right?

All too often, it’s newer suburban families of color who get stuck paying for all the opportunity that whiter and wealthier families like mine already extracted. Because this cycle plays out over large geographies and multiple generations, it can be difficult to recognize when we take snapshots of a single suburban community at a single point in time. That’s why I followed five families living in five suburban communities that are each at a different stage of this process.

It’s also why public schools are such a valuable lens 鈥� we can only really see the bigger picture when we pay close attention to the anger, frustration and disillusionment that so many suburban parents feel when they’ve done everything right, yet still have to deal with their children being called racial slurs, subjected to unfair discipline and denied access to opportunities like gifted programs.

Just three doors down from your old house in Penn Hills, you knock on a door and find one of your five subjects: Bethany Smith, a Black woman who bought the place with her mother. That Bethany鈥檚 experience is so different from your family鈥檚 seems to reveal what you鈥檙e getting at in the book. Tell us about her. [Note: Herold uses pseudonyms for all of his subjects with the exception of Smith, who writes the book鈥檚 epilogue.]

Bethany’s family and mine wanted the same things: a quiet street, good public schools, homes that steadily increase in value, systems and services that just work. The difference is that my white family got most of those things without paying full price, while Bethany’s family had to pay extra to receive declining services, a school district that was raising taxes and slashing services and a stagnant housing market. 

Your subjects 鈥� almost all of whom are people of color 鈥� seem in many ways left to their own devices when it comes to pursuing these dreams in mostly crumbling, formerly white suburbs. What should communities be doing differently to help these families?

That’s the wrong question. Here’s why: In suburban Atlanta, I followed a middle-class Black family named the Robinsons. Both parents have advanced degrees, good jobs, rich social networks, and a strong spiritual foundation. Both also unabashedly love learning. Nika, the mom, was pursuing her PhD in public health, and Anthony, the dad, was a network engineer and former middle school teacher who stayed up late each night re-teaching geometry concepts to his teen son. Both parents were extremely active in their children’s schools, volunteering in the library, going to every parent-teacher meeting and maintaining running email correspondence with their kids’ teachers. And both Nika and Anthony are extremely kind and funny to boot. So for me, the question becomes: How on earth does a well-regarded system like the Gwinnett County Public Schools not only fail to connect with a family like the Robinsons, but actively alienate them, by gradually whittling away their oldest son鈥檚 spirit, joy, and sense of self, despite the abundant resources, assets and gifts the Robinsons bring with them?

So how can we understand the Robinsons鈥� experience through your lens of suburban decline instead of incompetence at the school level?

By 2019, Gwinnett County was nearly two-thirds Black, Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial. But in many ways, the Gwinnett County Public Schools operated as if it were still the early 1990s, when the population it served was still 90 percent white. During the period I write about, this was evident in big racial disparities in school discipline and access to gifted programs; Black and brown children now made up about two-thirds of all the district鈥檚 students, but barely one-third of the kids the district identified as gifted and talented.

Above all, though, this dynamic was evident in the district鈥檚 leadership. Prior to 2018, Gwinnett had somehow never elected a person of color to its five-member school board, which was largely controlled by three older white women, one of whom had held her seat for 47 years, and all of whom were vocal in their beliefs that changing the way things had always been in order to reflect the priorities and values of a changing population was tantamount to diluting the quality of the education the district offered. There was plenty of incompetence, but it occurred within the larger context of a $2.3 billion organization with policies, practices, and personnel that too often showed flagrant disregard for the majority of families it served. 

Eventually, things start to fall apart for nearly all of your subjects, it seems. Even the Beckers, a conservative and affluent white family, ultimately give up on the public schools in their exclusive Dallas exurb after a single year. They end up in a private Christian academy in a Plano strip mall. That makes me wonder: Is at least some of the 鈥渦nraveling鈥� you鈥檙e describing just the messiness of life, parent restlessness writ large?

I approached writing Disillusioned from two angles. I wanted to illuminate a big economic, social, and political pattern that we all now live within because America is such a suburban nation. I also wanted to explore the choices everyday families make and the lives we build as we try to figure out our relationship to that pattern. So I don’t think the Beckers’ relentless search for better schools is separate or distinct from the cycle of suburban churn they’re trying to navigate. As with the rest of us, these larger forces help determine the available options, and the choices we make in turn help shape those larger forces. 

You note throughout the book that Black and brown students have always had a fraught relationship with their suburban schools: 鈥淔or so long,鈥� you write, 鈥渟o much of suburbia had been organized around trying first to keep those kids out, then treating them as a problem to be managed.鈥� Yet in Compton, Calif., which is now almost entirely Black and brown, you find a measure of promise. Can you say more?

Jefferson Elementary in Compton is housed in a ramshackle facility consisting of several rundown bungalow buildings with narrow slits for windows that are almost reminiscent of a prison. But what I saw inside Jefferson and Compton Unified was a multiracial collection of adults 鈥� including a Black superintendent and school board chair, a Filipino principal, and a Latino fourth-grade teacher whose classroom I followed 鈥� who were unflagging in their belief that Compton鈥檚 children were bursting with talent and deserved all the opportunities and supports the system could muster. 

One of my favorite little examples of this was a narrative essay the fourth-graders were asked to write. The kids had to describe what a typical day would look like if they worked at . A boy named Jacob, whose family I was following, wrote this incredible piece about designing new droids and prototyping new light sabers and having water-cooler conversations with George Lucas. Between assignments like that, after-school robotics clubs, the chance to create a class newspaper, engineering lessons through [a well-regarded STEM-focused curriculum], and a class-wide mock trial, the kids were flooded with opportunities to imagine themselves shaping America鈥檚 future. And Superintendent Darin Brawley was extremely intentional about this, at a very big-picture level 鈥� he recognized that his retirement and his own family鈥檚 progress would depend on how well he prepared the students in Compton Unified, and so he took that responsibility not just seriously, but personally.

Your idea to pay Bethany Smith, the Penn Hills mom, to write the book鈥檚 epilogue strikes me as a bold choice. She鈥檚 quite blunt, for the record, writing that white people 鈥渁re always fucking some shit up, then expecting everybody else to go fix it.鈥� Why, among all of your subjects, does she deserve the last word? After the century-long narrative you鈥檝e woven, is this the message you want readers to take away?

I love Bethany’s epilogue. I think it’s just tremendous. I’m so grateful she agreed to write it, and I’m even more grateful she was willing to get really, really honest, even when doing so was painful for her and unflattering for me. 

A central question drove me to give four years of my life to this project. I wanted to know how the opportunities my white family enjoyed in Penn Hills a generation ago are connected to the declining fortunes of the families who live in Penn Hills now. And I think Bethany鈥檚 epilogue really helped capture and communicate the answer. But it took me a long-time to actually be able to really hear what she was saying, in part because I had to shed a lot of my own illusions.

The breakthrough came when I finally realized I had to engage these questions emotionally, not just intellectually. And that meant putting under a microscope my own experience as a white person who grew up in suburbia, reaped its benefits and left behind a mess so I could go build a comfortable life somewhere else. Doing that made the book much richer, and that was a direct result of the challenge Bethany issued to me. So I’m extremely thankful to her, and to all the families and educators featured in this book who helped create a space that allowed all of us to give as much of our hearts as we felt comfortable sharing. 

Disclosure: Benjamin Herold received support from at Columbia University鈥檚 Graduate School of Journalism. Greg Toppo is a Spencer Fellowship board member.

Georgia high schools continued to make marginal gains in the percentage of students who graduate on time, with a rate of 84.4% for the class of 2023.

That 鈥渇our-year adjusted cohort rate,鈥� as the federal government calls it, was up 0.3 percentage points from the prior year, the  on Tuesday.

With one exception, the state has made steady 鈥� and generally incremental 鈥� annual improvements since the new measure was implemented over a decade ago.

The  pandemic, when the class of 2021 had an 83.7% rate, a tenth of a percentage point down from the prior year.

The measure works like this: The number of students who earn a regular high school diploma is divided by the number of students in the 鈥渁djusted cohort鈥� for the graduating class. That cohort comprises all the students who entered a Georgia high school as freshmen four years prior, minus those who transferred outplus those who transferred in.

The U.S. Department of Education implemented the new measure to standardize reporting across the states. In 2011, Georgia鈥檚 rate plummeted under the new measure, . That was far lower than the nearly 81% rate state officials had touted before, and it ranked Georgia among the lowest performers nationally, below Alabama and Mississippi.

Georgia鈥檚 largest gain came in 2015, when 79% graduated in four years, up more than 6 percentage points from the prior class. Since then, the increases have generally been fractional, the gains exceeding 1 percentage point in only 2017 and 2020.

The current year鈥檚 rate is the highest Georgia has achieved under the measure. That prompted elected state schools Superintendent Richard Woods to say in a written statement that he was 鈥渋ncredibly proud鈥� of the students, their families and their schools. He noted that Georgia had recently  (but he didn鈥檛 note that the average total score fell 7 percentage points).

Woods said he was confident in continued 鈥減ositive results as we invest in academic recovery and building a student-centered educational system.鈥�

This story comes from our partners at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more on the news and events  in metro-Atlanta and Georgia, visit .

As an assistant district attorney in 2013, Willis turned heads in one of her first big cases: She helped convene a grand jury that indicted decorated Superintendent Beverly Hall and nearly three dozen other educators for cheating on state standardized tests. In the end, Willis brought a dozen cases to trial, with a jury convicting 11.

This week, Willis invoked the same statute 鈥� Georgia鈥檚 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, Act 鈥� to indict Trump and 18 others in an alleged plot to overturn the state鈥檚 2020 election results. 

In doing so, she offered a reminder of her role in a divisive chapter in the city鈥檚 recent history. While the former president that Willis is, among other things, 鈥渁 rabid partisan,鈥� the cheating prosecutions left fissures in her own community, where many say she stood up for children but others accuse her of turning her back on Black educators. 

鈥楥ooking the books鈥�

Hall, the Atlanta superintendent, arrived in the district in 1999, eventually leading what she would call a data-driven turnaround. She told observers that under her tenure, Atlanta schools were 鈥渄ebunking the American algorithm that socio-economics predicts academic success,鈥� The Atlanta Journal-Constitution .

By 2009, her efforts had earned her one of education鈥檚 top honors: . But the same year, the Journal-Constitution the first of several stories analyzing Atlanta鈥檚 results on the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. The analysis found that scores had risen at rates that were statistically 鈥渁ll but impossible.鈥� It also found that district officials disregarded internal irregularities and retaliated against whistleblowers. 

Critics would soon compare Hall to 鈥渁 Mafia boss who demanded fealty from subordinates while perpetrating a massive, self-serving fraud,鈥� the city newspaper reported at the time. Willis pursued Hall using the same tools many prosecutors employ against Mafia bosses and drug kingpins. In bringing charges under the state鈥檚 RICO Act, Willis alleged that Hall and her colleagues used the 鈥渓egitimate enterprise鈥� of the school system to carry out an illegitimate act: cheating.

Lonnie King, a former head of the local NAACP, the newspaper that when he looked at the data, 鈥淚 thought Beverly Hall was cooking the books鈥� as early as 2006.

The newspaper鈥檚 coverage led Gov. Sonny Perdue to appoint a team of special investigators, who conducted 2,100 interviews and reviewed 800,000 documents. By 2011, they uncovered cheating in 44 of the 56 schools they examined, concluding that 178 educators participated. Investigators eventually found widespread tampering with test papers and concluded that Hall stood at the center of 鈥渁 culture of corruption.鈥�

Special investigator Michael Bowers, a former state attorney general, in 2013 that interrogating teachers in the scheme had left him in tears.

“The thing I remember most was talking to some of the teachers who had been mistreated, mostly single moms,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd it’s heartbreaking. They told of how they had been forced to cheat.鈥� One told him, 鈥淚 had no choice.鈥�

鈥極n the backs of babies鈥�

Hall retired in 2011, but on March 29, 2013, a Fulton County grand jury indicted her and more than 30 others in what Willis called a conspiracy comprising administrators, principals, teachers and even a school secretary.

Similar to this week鈥檚 indictments, the Atlanta defendants faced charges of racketeering, conspiracy and making false statements. Hall also faced theft charges because her rising salary was tied to test scores 鈥� in 2009, the year she was named Superintendent of the Year, she got , prosecutors noted.

If convicted, Hall could have served as many as 45 years in prison, but she soon fell ill and the judge in the case indefinitely postponed her trial. At an April 2014 hearing, Andrew Young, a former Atlanta mayor and United Nations ambassador, rose in the courtroom and asked the judge to be 鈥渕erciful鈥� and drop the case against her.

鈥淟et God judge her,鈥� he said.

Hall died of breast cancer in 2015, at age 68.

Public opinion on the case was sharply divided, with many Black commentators accusing Willis of overreach. But eventually, 34 of Hall鈥檚 subordinates faced criminal charges.

Brittney Cooper, a professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Africana Studies at Rutgers University, : 鈥淪capegoating Black teachers for failing in a system that is designed for Black children, in particular, not to succeed is the real corruption here.鈥�

Cooper noted that former Washington, D.C., Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who is Korean-American, had also been for creating a 鈥渃ulture of fear about test scores.鈥� An by USA Today revealed findings similar to Atlanta鈥檚, but an inspector general report found of widespread cheating and Rhee never faced prosecution.

While most of the Atlanta educators eventually pleaded guilty to avoid jail time, 12 went to trial in 2014. As with the Trump case, this one was complex: Jury selection took more than , and jurors sat through complex statistical analyses of answer-sheet erasure patterns, among other matters. At a few points in the trial, a dozen or more lawyers offered different versions of events.

In an early case that went to trial in 2013, Willis said supervisor Tamara Cotman worked to protect educators鈥� jobs by advising principals under investigation not to cooperate with state investigators 鈥� a charge Cotman denied 鈥� and by vowing to return high test scores at any cost.

鈥淪he did it on the backs of babies,鈥� Willis during closing arguments. The jury acquitted Cotman, who was later convicted of other charges in the larger case.

In court, Willis told the jury of 鈥渃heating parties鈥� at which educators got together to erase children鈥檚 incorrect answers on test sheets and pencil in correct ones. At a few of the parties, she said, educators 鈥渁te fish and grits 鈥� I can鈥檛 make this up.鈥� 

The jury convicted 11 of the 12 of racketeering and other charges.

The Rev. Dr. Raphael G. Warnock, at the time senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church 鈥� he now serves as a U.S. Senator 鈥� The New York Times, 鈥淭here鈥檚 no question that this has not been our finest hour. It鈥檚 a dark chapter, but it鈥檚 just that. It鈥檚 a chapter.鈥�

In 2015, commentators Van Jones and Mark Holden that the educators convicted in the case were 鈥渢he latest victims of overcriminalization,鈥� facing serious jail time because of Willis鈥檚 鈥渦nprecedented use鈥� of RICO. Three were sentenced to seven years in prison, they noted, while others received one- or two-year sentences if they didn鈥檛 accept plea deals. 

鈥淭hese punishments do not fit the crimes,鈥� they wrote. 

Since then, several of the defendants have loudly proclaimed their innocence, even as they鈥檝e served prison time or pursued appeals to avoid it. A handful of those cases remain outstanding. In several instances, they and their defenders say they’ve spent their life savings pursuing appeals.

In 2019, Shani Robinson, one of those found guilty, about the ordeal. In an interview, , 鈥渢he thought of being blamed for something that I did not do is horrifying. … I felt like if I was on the right side of justice, that one day I would be vindicated. That was the moment that I decided that I would never take a plea deal.”

But many parents saw it differently.

Shawnna Hayes-Jocelyn had three of her four children in classes at schools affected by the cheating. She said Willis rightly brought RICO charges. 

鈥淵ou鈥檇 better believe she did the right thing, because that was the worst Black-on-Black crime example that could have ever happened around education,鈥� she told 社区黑料. 鈥淏ecause what they did to those children is that they didn’t give those children options and opportunities.鈥�

Hayes-Jocelyn said her mind was made up once she read the state report that alleged widespread cheating among educators. 

鈥淲hen I read that report and saw what was happening in that school system, yeah, people said, 鈥極h, this is RICO. We think about RICO as organized crime.鈥� I said, 鈥楾his was organized crime.鈥欌�� 

Those familiar with Willis鈥檚 work say she鈥檚 tenacious. Atlanta NAACP president Gerald Griggs, one of the defense attorneys in the cheating trial, told The Guardian this week that Trump is 鈥済oing to be very surprised when he鈥檚 sitting across from her for months on trial. He鈥檒l find out how great of a lawyer she really is.鈥�

Asked in 2021 if she had regrets about pursuing the school cheating cases, Willis was blunt, the Times that by going after teachers, principals and administrators, she was 鈥渄efending poor Black children.” Public education, she said, offers these children their only chance to get ahead. 鈥淪o if what I am being criticized for is doing something to protect people that did not have a voice for themselves, I sit in that criticism, and y鈥檃ll can put it in my obituary.鈥�

As an elementary school teacher in Fulton County, Amy Long was used to scarcity. When she prepared reading lessons, she often found herself scrounging through a closet for workbooks only to find there weren鈥檛 enough for every student. She compiled websites where she and her colleagues could download because the school lacked a complete curriculum.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really frustrating when you have something, but you don鈥檛 have all of it,鈥� said Long, who taught for eight years at Renaissance Elementary 鈥� a predominantly Black, high-poverty school at the south end of the Atlanta-area district. Long, now a literacy coach at another South Fulton school, kept snacks on hand for students who hadn鈥檛 eaten breakfast and saw her class roster change regularly as families moved from one rental home to another. 

Schools in largely white, well-off North Fulton offered a stark contrast.

Backed by active PTAs and strong community support, many schools stocked full sets of chapter books and computer programs that provided students with extra practice on early literacy skills. 

鈥淚t was 100% inequitable,鈥� said Long, who has worked in the Fulton County Schools for 12 years. Students didn鈥檛 get 鈥渢he same learning experience as their peers in a more affluent area, simply due to the location of their school.鈥� 

Now, officials in Georgia鈥檚 fourth-largest district are hoping an infusion of federal relief funds will change all that. Fulton has allocated roughly a third of its $262 million in pandemic aid to replace a patchy and uneven approach to reading with a solid, phonics-based curriculum. , which includes training teachers and administrators in how children learn to read and adding K-2 literacy coaches in all 60 elementary schools, is an attempt to give students an equal shot at staying on grade level, regardless of where they live. 

鈥淭he equity issue will always be there,鈥� said Franchesca Warren, a school board member who represents 16 schools in South Fulton. In 2016, she helped launch an advocacy group to better educate parents about the district and pushed for a stronger emphasis on literacy at her own children鈥檚 school. 鈥淭his is literally a marathon. We are changing the opinions and viewpoints of South Fulton schools one parent at a time.鈥�

 鈥楢sk鈥� instead of 鈥榓ks鈥�

On a rainy Monday, first-grade teacher Sheila Brown read from a lesson handbook as she looked over her students鈥� shoulders at Stonewall Tell Elementary in College Park. They sorted words with short and long vowel sounds into columns in their workbooks. Shifting their attention to the white board at the front of the room, they pointed two fingers toward the vowels in 鈥渕ake.鈥� 

鈥淩emember when you see the silent 鈥榚鈥� what happens with the vowel,鈥� Brown reminded them. She asked the name for a word with a short vowel sound that ends with a consonant, like 鈥渃an鈥� or 鈥渕ad.鈥� 

鈥淐losed syllable!鈥� they responded enthusiastically.

Brown, a former middle school teacher in the Atlanta district, said she鈥檚 never taught this way. Before the new program, she wanted to get students reading, but didn鈥檛 spend as much time on 鈥渢he phonetic part of it,鈥� she said. Now she understands, 鈥淛ust knowing sight words is not teaching our kids.鈥�

Since last year, the 90,000-student district has spent more than $3.5 million on two contracts with Lexia Learning to deliver its intensive to more than 3,000 teachers, principals and central office administrators. In addition to the new program, each school鈥檚 鈥済overnance council鈥� 鈥� comprised of teachers, parents and community members 鈥� has a say in how it spends a pot of money on extra materials, as long as the purchases support the district鈥檚 major objectives, like literacy.

At Stonewall Tell, some of that $46,000 was spent on plastic that amplify students鈥� voices so they can hear how they鈥檙e sounding out words and cards that show how the mouth should look when making those sounds.

A small triumph: Brown said she now hears more students saying 鈥渁sk鈥� instead of 鈥渁ks.鈥�

Reforming the district鈥檚 reading program began by weeding out in many classrooms. Some schools had been using the Units of Study series from Columbia University鈥檚 Lucy Calkins. Reading experts say the program lacks a on phonics.

Over time, literacy instruction in the district had grown to be 鈥渁 bit of a Wild West,鈥� said Ken Zeff, who served as interim superintendent from 2015 to 2016 and now leads an education nonprofit in the metro region. How a student learned to read and write depended on what schools could afford and was left to local discretion. Long said teachers struggled to share ideas with colleagues across the county because everyone used different materials.

Some parents are beginning to notice a shift 鈥� and adjusting their expectations. Courtney Martin said her daughter, a kindergartner at Mountain Park Elementary in the North Fulton city of Roswell, doesn鈥檛 recognize as many common words as she thought she would. But she understands that the goal isn鈥檛 memorization. The teacher is 鈥渂uilding new foundational skills rather than rushing through everything,鈥� she said.

Martin serves on her school鈥檚 governance council and helps the literacy coach create classroom 鈥渟ound walls,鈥� which display the letter sounds in words. The coach, she said, is 鈥渢aking more off teachers鈥� plates so they don鈥檛 have to worry about that.鈥�

North and south

District leaders are counting on the investment to pay off for years to come. But in a county with one of the largest in the nation, the temporary windfall can only go so far. 

Fulton is geographically split 鈥� with the urban Atlanta system sandwiched in between. During the pandemic, long-standing achievement gaps between north and south schools only . 

Last year鈥檚 English language arts scores offered a sobering reminder of that gulf.

At one end of the spectrum, just 15% of students scored proficient or higher at Heritage Elementary in College Park, which sits off a main road in the shadow of America鈥檚 busiest airport 鈥� an area marked by low-income housing, fast food joints and . 

Over 40 miles away at Crabapple Crossing Elementary in Milton, a North Fulton town where two-acre spreads border horse farms and country clubs, the proficiency rate was five times higher. 

showed that South Fulton students experienced more learning loss and took longer to bounce back than their peers in the north. The decline leveled off during the 2021-22 school year as the district implemented such as high-dosage tutoring and summer school. 

Ericka Thompson, a Black South Fulton mom, understands those disparate realities. In the 1990s, she bussed to a North Fulton high school under a 鈥渕inority-to-majority鈥� program, which the district phased out about a decade ago. Her two sons attend Westlake High School on the southside, where over 90% of the students are Black and some parents work 70-hour weeks.

The district, she said, did its best to diagnose students鈥� needs after schools reopened, but 鈥渋t鈥檚 almost like who needs stitches and who needs a Band-Aid,鈥� she said. 

Grace Love sees the district鈥檚 use of relief funds in her dual roles as parent and district employee. Two years ago, she moved her second-grade daughter from a private school into Stonewall Tell and watched 鈥渢est scores skyrocket.鈥�

But as a behavior specialist for the district in South Fulton, Love wishes the budget had included more support for grandparents raising children and parents who work two jobs and struggle to help their kids with school. District data shows graduation rates are sometimes 10 percentage points lower than in North Fulton while suspension rates are roughly four to five times higher. Earlier this year, community leaders held a town hall on curbing . 

鈥淭he dynamics between the north and south are very different when it comes to parental support,鈥� Love said. 鈥淭here needs to be more attention to the neediest areas if we want to make it equitable.鈥� 

But such efforts are complicated by over the past 30 years. The region鈥檚 has more than doubled, and many Black residents have migrated from the city limits to the suburbs. That means some of the district鈥檚 highest-need schools are in neighborhoods once viewed as more well-off.

鈥淲e have parents that live in million dollar houses, and we have children that are homeless,鈥� said Irene Schweiger, executive director of Sandy Springs Education Force, a nonprofit in one of the in the nation. The organization runs afterschool and mentoring programs, and stocks school 鈥渕ini libraries鈥� with books students can borrow or keep. 

Similarly, Warren鈥檚 district in South Fulton includes schools where a 100% of students live in poverty as well as subdivisions of stately brick mansions. The route from Atlanta to those neighborhoods takes commuters past , named for the once-homeless filmmaker turned megastar 鈥� a reminder of this into a movie industry hub. 

The challenge for leaders has been how to spend the relief money in a way that touches all schools teaching students to read while still targeting those communities with the lowest-performing schools and most complex needs.

Early in the pandemic, the district paid $800,000 to nonprofit to offer vision screenings and glasses in Title I schools. At Holcomb Bridge School in Alpharetta, for example, over 200 of the school鈥檚 1,000 students needed glasses.

鈥淚f a child can’t see, they can鈥檛 read,鈥� said Gyimah Whitaker, the district鈥檚 deputy chief academic officer, recently tapped to become superintendent in neighboring Decatur. 鈥淚t’s going to be difficult for them to be able to distinguish a B from a D if it’s blurry.鈥�

They鈥檙e also spending about $13.1 million on dropout prevention efforts, which includes the costs of running three 鈥� two in South Fulton and one in Sandy Springs. The centers offer families free groceries, donated clothes and hygiene items, counseling and referrals to housing assistance. 

And the district opened in-school 鈥渁cademies鈥� at the five South Fulton high schools. The smaller, more-sheltered environment 鈥� which combines online classes with in-person instruction and counseling 鈥� has put graduation back within reach for students thrown far off track by the pandemic.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 pass a single math class in all of high school,鈥� said Darryn Williams, who attends Creekside High. 鈥淢y 10th grade year, we went virtual. That messed me up, completely.鈥�

He spent more time that year helping his five younger siblings get through remote learning than on his own schoolwork. By December of this school year, however, he had earned enough credits in the academy to be a senior and will graduate on time next month. 

When the academy opened last fall, teachers began posting small certificates on a bulletin board each time a student passed a course. They soon ran out of space. Now, a dozen rows of the celebratory signs plaster the hallway. 

But the district鈥檚 biggest bet is on improving literacy, a growing concern as federal money dries up next year. With some educators on staff now certified to offer the course, the district will continue to train future teachers in the science of reading. Whether elementary schools will be able to keep their literacy coaches remains undecided.

Long, one of those coaches, spends part of her days at Stonewall Tell helping teachers connect the scientific theory they absorbed through hours of training to their more immediate push to get 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds to master phonics and spelling. 

She also works directly with small groups of students who were 鈥渟uper, super affected” by the pandemic. Last fall, some second graders, she said, were still learning how to form letters. 

South Fulton students who transfer to schools in the north often struggle to keep up with new classmates who are further ahead, Long said. She hopes the new reading program will keep them from getting lost.

鈥淲e know better now, so we can do better,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e need equity for all students, no matter what side of the county they鈥檙e on.鈥�

A former public school band teacher, Brooks said she was largely inspired by the grim pandemic realities of her kids鈥� schooling: Her 7-year-old, born late in the year, was stuck in kindergarten even though she knew the alphabet and could already read. Her 9-year-old was being bullied at a private Christian school, while her oldest, a 16-year-old rising , was simply too busy for typical school calendars.

鈥淎t the end of last school year, I was like, 鈥業 don’t think I can do this again,鈥欌�� Brooks said.

So she quit her job 鈥� her husband still teaches music 鈥� and began homeschooling all three girls.

Brooks鈥� experiences sync with those of many parents who have turned to homeschooling since the pandemic. A from the online education platform Outschool found that this group is increasingly concerned about the quality of education their kids are getting in school. They鈥檙e also more likely to be politically centrist or liberal and less likely to homeschool for religious reasons.

Other recent research suggests that they鈥檙e also more likely to be non-white: The U.S. Census Bureau in 2021 reported that homeschooling among Black families in the school year following the start of the pandemic, from 3.3% in spring 2020 to 16.1% that fall.

In the , which tapped 622 homeschool families in August, Black families comprised 9% of respondents, but the results didn鈥檛 probe whether there has been a rise in these families. The survey did find, however, that parents鈥� concerns around racism in school during the pandemic rose: Among pre-pandemic homeschoolers in the survey, just 2% said racism was their No. 1 reason for leaving school; among newer homeschoolers, the figure was 5%.

And it found that the reasons families began homeschooling in the past year are 鈥渟hifting away from being a values-driven decision to an environment-driven decision.鈥�

Among other findings:

• 12% of new homeschooling parents said their decision was primarily because their child鈥檚 neurodiversity wasn鈥檛 supported in traditional schools, up from 7% before the pandemic;

• Just 1% of new homeschooling parents said their No. 1 reason was based on religious beliefs, down from 14% of parents already homeschooling who said the same;

• 47% of new homeschoolers described themselves as 鈥減rogressive鈥� or 鈥渓iberal,鈥� up from 32%;

• 6% of new homeschoolers said they had conservative views vs. 27% of pre-Covid homeschoolers.

Significantly, few parents said their decision, either in 2020 or 2022, was based on politically charged issues such as vaccines or schools鈥� political stances.

Traditional schools鈥� 鈥榟ot mess鈥�

Outschool co-founder Amir Nathoo said the findings suggest that parents are homeschooling for many reasons, including having children whose learning differences 鈥渨eren’t being satisfied by the local school.鈥�

Homeschooling families have traditionally valued its flexibility, Nathoo said. 鈥淏ut now what we’re seeing come bubbling up is just: Pure quality is a top concern.鈥�

Alessa Giampaolo Keener, who directs the Maryland Homeschool Association, said the pandemic 鈥渃hanged a lot about homeschooling,鈥� including the number of families willing to give it a try: In March 2020, just before widespread school closures, she counted fewer than 28,000 homeschoolers statewide. That figure now stands at about 45,000.

Keener noted that the recent uptick, especially in Black homeschoolers, stems from many public schools being caught 鈥渃ompletely unprepared鈥� in 2020. Educators 鈥渁bsolutely did the best that they could, given the circumstances. But it was a hot mess for a lot of kids.鈥�

Tracking homeschooling is a bit slippery. The National Home Education Research Institute about 6% of school-aged children, or 3.1 million students, homeschooled in the 2021-2022 school year, up from 2.5 million in spring 2019.

The journal Education Next, using Census Bureau data, that the percentage of U.S. households with at least one child being homeschooled essentially doubled from spring 2020 to fall 2020, from 5.4% to 11.1%.  

Many of these parents said they were finding education at home 鈥渢o be an exhausting undertaking.鈥� One-fourth said they didn鈥檛 plan to continue.

But Alex Spurrier, who studies policy at the consulting firm Bellwether, said recent polling shows the pandemic has helped break a kind of psychological link in parents鈥� minds between education and a five-day, in-person school week. For many families, learning from home 鈥渨orked really well and probably opened their eyes to a different way forward.鈥� 

As a result, he said, 鈥渋t doesn’t look like we’re on a path to heading back鈥� to pre-pandemic ideas about homeschooling.

One-on-one attention, bullying trump religious reasons

Michael McShane, director of national research for the research and advocacy group EdChoice, said the Outschool findings his organization has done recently.

鈥淲hen we asked people why they homeschool, things like religious reasons or political reasons, those were at the bottom of the list,鈥� he said. At the top: School shootings, bullying, school violence, and wanting more one-on-one attention for their children.

McShane said his school choice work has changed his outlook on things like the socialization that homeschoolers enjoy. His conversations with their parents shine a light on the often 鈥渢remendously negative鈥� experiences many students have had in school. 鈥淚 can’t tell you how many parents were like, ‘Let me tell you about the socialization my kid got: It was getting the crap beaten out of them,鈥欌�� he said.

Homeschooling researchers have also long noted that a top reason Black families often give for turning to homeschooling is in schools 鈥� particularly against young boys of color. Black homeschoolers, McShane said, often say they 鈥渏ust didn’t think their schools were respecting them, or respecting their kids, or treating them fairly. And so they wanted to kind of strike out on their own.鈥�

Bellwether鈥檚 Spurrier said more families are likely interested in more flexible learning environments like homeschooling or microschools if the barriers to entry are lower. He鈥檚 keeping an eye on places like Arizona and , which are both experimenting with generous education savings accounts for families. 

Singing, dancing, being kind

In Atlanta, Brooks has discovered an focused on helping Black homeschoolers thrive 鈥� she has even begun posting humorous videos that encourage other Black homeschool moms. 鈥淚t’s been awesome, just being able to talk to people that look like me, that are probably going through the same thing.鈥�

Like many families find, homeschooling has allowed her kids to focus less on grades and more on interests.

Brooks now posts joyous TikTok and Instagram videos of herself and her kids as they ,,, and meet people like Georgia gubernatorial candidate at public events. They鈥檝e lately been trying out in an informal family .

Brooks said she鈥檚 also able to focus more on character education, a top priority that she said doesn鈥檛 get much love in school.

鈥淲e learn how to have conversations with each other,鈥� Brooks said. 鈥淎nd I’ve seen from the beginning of the school year til now that they’ve changed drastically. They’ll catch themselves if they’re not being nice to their sister. They’re like, 鈥業’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell like that.鈥� Those kinds of things are happening without me telling them. And so I just know for sure it’s working.鈥�

The morning routine was underway in a windowless Brookview Elementary School classroom where  strands of twinkle lights provided a soft glow. Then, the teacher announced it was time to line up. 

Excitement bubbled as second graders at the Fulton County school stowed away science notebooks and  waited in an increasingly boisterous cafeteria for buses to take them on the year鈥檚 first field trip. 

What鈥檚 something you might see, asked teacher Jelisa Miller. 

A wolf, a giraffe, a monkey, a tree, the kids guessed. 

鈥淲hen we come back, I鈥檓 going to ask you this question and your answers will be completely different,鈥� she said. 

Their destination: The Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell, an hourlong drive north from the East  Point school. It鈥檚 one of many metro Atlanta sites that鈥檚 seen a rebound in student visits as field trips  resume after a pandemic pause. 

The return of class outings has bolstered nonprofit venues that went nearly dormant as COVID-19  spread in 2020. In the spring, popular attractions such as the Atlanta History Center, the Georgia  Aquarium, Zoo Atlanta and the nature center, which typically host tens of thousands of students  annually, saw field trip attendance soar, an uptick that鈥檚 growing this school year. 

After two years in which trips were halted or reduced, Fulton County Schools has kicked off a new,  expanded program that aims to give every child in the 90,000-student district a chance to visit an  educational venue. 

Schools in Gwinnett County took field trips last year and 鈥渁re wide open now,鈥� said Eric Thigpen, the  district鈥檚 executive director of academic support. Clayton County Public Schools, the metro Atlanta  system that waited the longest to reopen buildings, permitted certain field trips last year with safety  restrictions and expects the number to grow this year. 

鈥淔or 18 months, we were absolutely quiet,鈥� said the nature center鈥檚 president and CEO, Natasha Rice.  鈥淔or us, this is a huge deal because everybody … wants to see kids in nature.鈥� 

On the sunny September day when Brookview students visited, they hiked up a hillside trail and sat  under a canopy of green leaves to learn how Creek and Cherokee Indians built shelters and made  clothes many years ago.

鈥淲hat kind of food do you think they ate? Did they get to go to Kroger?鈥� asked naturalist Kitty Glickman. The children gave a resounding 鈥渘o.鈥� 

So where did they find food? 

鈥淲almart?鈥� asked a student. 

That launched the next lesson on hunting and berry picking. Then students each took a big whiff of wild  onions. 

Fulton budgeted more than $4 million over three years to expand field trip offerings. The Cultural  Kaleidoscope initiative is one element of the district鈥檚 federally funded $169 million plan to help  students recover from learning setbacks suffered during the pandemic. 

The program, whose tagline is 鈥渆xpeditions for everyone,鈥� is aimed at exposing all students to  memorable, hands-on learning beyond the classroom, said Amanda Smith, a museum teaching specialist  who develops such outings for the district. Each grade will go to a different site, from botanical gardens  and the symphony to art and science museums. In the past, schools found their own funding to pay for  any trips, which took place on a school-by-school basis. 

When in-person learning returned, field trips lagged, as many large metro districts dealt with  transportation challenges and navigated ongoing safety concerns, Rice said. 

But the schedule is back to busy: Rice expects at least 11,000 students to visit by the end of January,  followed by more next spring. 

Last school year, Atlanta鈥檚 Alliance Theatre produced only one show as a student matinee, 鈥淎 Christmas  Carol,鈥� and just 7,000 students saw it or participated in programming. That鈥檚 a mere 15% of the number  that experienced the theater before the pandemic. 

This fall, student shows are fully back, starting with sold-out performances of 鈥淭he Incredible Book  Eating Boy.鈥� The field trip program is in such demand, the theater added performances of the musical,  based on a children鈥檚 book about a boy who struggles with reading. 

Christopher Moses, who oversees the Alliance鈥檚 educational efforts, has loved hearing the 鈥渦nbridled  laughter鈥� of young audiences after 鈥渟o much doom and gloom.鈥� 

In 2019, researchers from the University of Arkansas studied the benefits of field trips to the Alliance  and other Atlanta cultural venues. They found evidence that students who visited had higher test scores, more interest in school and a greater understanding of those with different opinions. 

鈥淚f we can increase hope and increase tolerance and you鈥檙e also doing better in school? This is the real  impact of this,鈥� Moses said. 

When students were learning virtually, the Atlanta History Center created short films for online classes  to watch with a facilitator available to answer questions. Home-schooling groups and private schools were among the first to return to the Buckhead site, which offers farm tours with blacksmithing and  woodworking demonstrations and visits that focus on the Civil War and the civil rights movement. 

Before the pandemic, up to 24,000 students visited in a year. So far this year, they鈥檝e scheduled trips for  15,000 to 18,000 students, and counting. 

鈥淣ow we are at full capacity. We have booked out school tours from September of this year through  April 2023,鈥� said Shatavia Elder, vice president of education. 

Zoo Atlanta, which also offered virtual programs, saw a resurgence of field trips this past spring, but the  number of people registered so far this year is half of what it was for all of 2019, according to  spokeswoman Rachel Davis. 

Educational trips to the Georgia Aquarium plummeted from about 160,000 students annually before the  pandemic to about 12,000 in 2021. Attendance rebounded this year, with roughly 80,000 so far. 

Bailey Dawson Jr., senior manager of education, said it鈥檚 been especially meaningful to see second and  third graders, who spent much of their early school years on computers, experience their first  excursions. Their jaws drop when they see the aquarium鈥檚 huge tanks. 

鈥滻t鈥檚 a whole world unlocked,鈥� he said. 

Miller, the Brookview teacher, knows what that鈥檚 like. Growing up in Florida, she still recalls a field trip  to the Miami Seaquarium. 

鈥淭hat was my first time seeing dolphins. The field trips that I went on were my first experiences,鈥� she  said. 

At the nature center, her students touched deer hide and marveled at a rescued, three-legged eastern  box turtle. That was a highlight for Carter Carey, 7, who said he鈥檇 tell his family that he 鈥渓earned about  nature and turtles.鈥� 

Deserie Bailey took the day off work to chaperone at the request of her daughter, Tsidii Tsidii. It was  Bailey鈥檚 first chance to accompany the 7-year-old on a field trip. The past few years have been hard as a  single mom, especially when students were learning online, she said. 

Tsidii Tsidii had never touched a deer hoof before. She snapped photos to remember it. She鈥檇 been  looking forward to the field trip for a while: 鈥淚 want to be a scientist when I grow up,鈥� she said. 

鈥淭rust me, she鈥檚 going to have a story,鈥� Bailey said of the nature center visit. 鈥淭hey鈥檒l read about it all  day, but they need that hands-on, that experience has to be there.鈥� 

This story comes from our partners at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more on the news and events  in metro-Atlanta and Georgia, visit .

Some public colleges and universities in metro Atlanta are offering extra help this summer to prep first year students for the fall semester amid concerns that the pandemic left many high school students unprepared for higher education. 

Georgia Gwinnett College is offering expanded orientation sessions to help students adjust to campus life. Kennesaw State University offers a two-week summer program so freshmen complete an economics class before the fall start. 

The pandemic 鈥渓eft an indelible mark,鈥� according to Sonny Perdue, the University System of Georgia鈥檚 recently named chancellor. 鈥淢any of our students lost ground during the pandemic, and we are seeing the consequences of that in our entering classes,鈥� he told faculty in a May letter. 

Michelle Rosemond, Georgia Gwinnett College鈥檚 vice president for student engagement and success, has read about falling test scores in high school English and math. 

鈥淲hat I鈥檓 seeing is the probability that the first-year experience will be tougher than normal,鈥� she said. 

Last school year鈥檚 scores on the state Milestones tests aren鈥檛 out yet, but the results from the 2020-21 school year were disappointing, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last year. 

They fell from 2018-19, the last time the tests were given before a temporary stay during the pandemic. The percentage of failing students rose by 2 to 9 points, varying by grade level and subject, with the largest declines in high schools. Fewer students than normal took the tests, which might have affected the overall results. Milestones scores from the last school year show students improving but still behind where they were prior to the pandemic. 

This fall鈥檚 college freshmen were high school sophomores when classrooms closed for COVID-19 in spring 2020. Some, particularly students of color in big urban areas like metro Atlanta, continued to do school remotely into their junior and even senior years. 

The situation seemed dire in 2020 when McKinsey & Company, the global consultant, surveyed nearly 2,100 U.S. high school seniors. Nearly a third wondered whether they were ready academically for college. 

The University System of Georgia doesn鈥檛 have enough data yet to indicate whether the academic setbacks were as significant as some feared, but data suggests more students were quitting college after their freshman year. 

In the four years prior to the pandemic, between 78.2% and 80.1% of freshmen came back after their first year. But the first-year retention rate for freshmen who entered in fall 2020 slipped to 74.6%.

Other evidence suggests a softer impact of COVID-19. At Georgia State, last fall鈥檚 freshman class had a high school grade-point average of 3.6, an increase of 0.03. 

At Georgia Gwinnett College, the percentage of students withdrawing from all courses increased significantly but was a small proportion of overall enrollment. 

The rate was about 2% prior to the pandemic. It rose to a high of 3.5% in fall 2020, dropping just over a percentage point by the following spring, said Rosemond. She doesn鈥檛 have the fall 2021 figures yet but is optimistic they have continued to fall or flatten. 

Still, her college and others have been rolling out new programs to help students. 

One launched at Georgia State last summer lets them retake one course they failed or withdrew from. The opportunity comes with coaching and advising.

At Kennesaw State, the First Flight program allows freshmen to take a two-credit economics class before their fall semester. The class is required for graduation, so taking it in advance would lighten their fall load and give them more time to focus on other courses, said Alex Lyon, director of new student programs there. 

And Georgia Gwinnett College is offering expanded orientation sessions. The 2.5-hour sessions established last year 鈥� Summer Preparatory Academic Resource Camps, or SPARC 鈥� introduce students to advisers, faculty, tutors and peers, in hopes of building relationships they can tap if they need help. 

Trent Prince, 30, joined the military after graduating from high school in Walton County. He was planning to enroll in college in fall 2020, but delayed that for a year due to the pandemic. Once enrolled at Georgia Gwinnett last year, he worried he had forgotten too much high school material and would be unable to keep pace with younger students. 

Then, he attended a SPARC session last summer. 

Not only did he connect socially with peers and professors, but faculty members were able to point out a different academic track that he said suited him better. Prince, who is majoring in English with a focus on education, now tutors Gwinnett County grade school students in reading and helps peers on campus with biology, his minor. 

鈥淲ithout that program, life would just be very different,鈥� Prince said. 鈥淐ollege would not be as great and as exciting as it is now because it gave me an opportunity to connect with other students, to reengage with the classroom, to connect with faculty and the professors, and to really get to know the school before I started.鈥� 

More Details

Last school year鈥檚 scores on the state Milestones tests aren鈥檛 out yet, but the results from the 2020-21 school year were disappointing, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last year. They fell from 2018- 19, the last time the tests were given before a temporary stay during the pandemic.

The percentage of failing students rose by 2 to 9 points, varying by grade level and subject, with the largest declines in high schools. 

Fewer students than normal took the tests, which might have affected the overall results. 

This story comes from our partners at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more on the news and events in metro-Atlanta and Georgia, visit .

Holding her fingers up, Allie Reeser asks the dark-haired girl in a bright, sunflower top how many times 2 goes into 8. Hakima, a fourth-grader from Afghanistan, has a lot of catching up to do, like learning multiplication tables. 

Pinpointing those skill gaps 鈥� and understanding the international backstories behind them 鈥� is Reeser鈥檚 job.

鈥淚f mom can鈥檛 read the homework, mom can鈥檛 help with the homework,鈥� said Reeser, who leads an afterschool program at Willow Branch, an apartment community in Clarkston, Georgia that is often the first stop for refugees settling in metro Atlanta. As if making their way to the U.S. wasn鈥檛 hard enough, the pandemic鈥檚 two years of remote learning put students even further behind. 鈥淲e have second- and third-graders who don鈥檛 know their ABCs.鈥�

Reeser鈥檚 ability to weave these families into the community is often their key to success in school and beyond. And it all starts at home: Reeser, 29, has spent the past five years living among them at Willow Branch. Before the pandemic forced social distancing, her second-floor apartment served as a regular hangout for children late into the evening. To parents, she鈥檚 a guide, friend and neighbor, leading them through the bureaucratic thickets of their adopted country and offering assistance with everything from getting a driver鈥檚 license to communicating with doctors.

The program, which occupies the back of a leasing office, is part of Star-C, an Atlanta nonprofit that offers tutoring and enrichment to students in developments located near schools on the state鈥檚 low-performing list.

鈥淪he has been instrumental in building trust with families that don鈥檛 look like her,鈥� said Margaret Stagmeier, Star-C鈥檚 founder. 

Stagmeier, a real estate investor and landlord, began the nonprofit in 2014 with the philosophy that strong schools, affordable rent and access to health care help stabilize communities. Willow Branch, a 1970s-era colonial style development, is one of four Star-C properties in metro Atlanta.

Since the 1970s, when scores of Vietnamese families fled the country in the aftermath of the war with the U.S., Clarkston has become known as the South鈥檚 , and now refugees per capita than any other American city. Willow Branch鈥檚 tenants have fled war and oppression 鈥� in Burma, Sudan and, most recently, Afghanistan.

Star-C is not a religious organization, but for Reeser, the daughter of a minister whose nearby church supports Clarkston鈥檚 refugees, living with immigrant families and offering their children a welcoming place to learn is simply an extension of the values she grew up with. 

That means helping high school students apply for college financial aid, sharing watermelon with residents outside on humid evenings and accompanying expectant mothers to the obstetrician 鈥� even though she doesn鈥檛 speak their languages.

She bridges that divide with hand signals and relies on older children to interpret the rest. 

鈥淚 speak body language, and that鈥檚 an important one,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 pretty good at picking up what鈥檚 going on.鈥�

Tarri Johnson witnessed this firsthand during pre-pandemic health fairs that featured routine  screenings for adults and immunizations for children. 

鈥淪he would use gestures to help the patients understand even when we couldn鈥檛,鈥� said Johnson, a manager for Medcura Health, a chain of clinics that works with Willow Branch. 鈥淪he just had a rapport with them.鈥�

Reeser began volunteering as a tutor in the complex at 14. She went on to earn a degree in theology and children鈥檚 ministry at Lipscomb University in Nashville and considered a career in teaching. After graduation, she returned home just as the Star-C position became available.

鈥楳ission work鈥�

At Indian Creek Elementary School, which backs up to the iron fence surrounding the apartments, staff depend on the bond Reeser has with the families. She helps parents make sense of jargon-laden school memos and escorts them to events to meet their children鈥檚 teachers. 

鈥淧arents don鈥檛 know how to introduce themselves,鈥� said Adam Nykamp, who has worked at the school for 22 years and oversees its STEAM program. Having Reeser on hand makes an American tradition like back-to-school night less intimidating. 

A new student arrives almost daily at Indian Creek, where 80 percent are English learners, representing 40 languages. That alone is a challenge for any school. When Stagmeier bought Willow Branch, Indian Creek was a failing school, unable to hit annual achievement targets. Now it鈥檚 rated a B in the state鈥檚 accountability system, which gives schools credit for showing growth. 

Reeser had a small hand in that turnaround. She stocks the center鈥檚 shelves with donated games, books and puzzles. She reviews material with students before state tests. But she thinks the children benefit the most from their regular interaction with staff and volunteers.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e getting so much English help right now,鈥� Reeser said on a sunny Monday afternoon in January as she watched the children play outside with 16 college-age volunteers from South Carolina. The visitors from OneLife Institute, a nonprofit gap-year organization for college-age youth interested in ministry, were spending a week in Clarkston to learn about the resettlement process. One group played tug-of-war while other children asked for piggyback rides. 

Barbara Porter, a retired educator, used to tutor children every Tuesday afternoon. She called Reeser鈥檚 life at Willow Branch 鈥渕ission work.鈥�

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 just go in and take over for a couple weeks and leave,鈥� she said, adding that she can鈥檛 bring herself to erase the reminder of the weekly shift. 鈥淚 still have it on my phone. I don鈥檛 want to take it off because I鈥檇 like to get back in.鈥�

The afterschool program is also a training ground for first-year medical students at Emory University. They developed a nutrition curriculum with Reeser and turned the center鈥檚 back study room into a library.

The partnership 鈥済ives us good insight into the community that we鈥檙e going to be working with,鈥� said Cassidy Golden, a medical student interested in pediatrics and underserved communities. 鈥淎llie is such a pillar of consistency in these kids鈥� lives. She鈥檚 there every single day.鈥� 

鈥楽ense of identity鈥�

So are many of the children. Ten-year-old Kader Mohamedzen 鈥� whose mother is from Ethiopia and father from Eritrea 鈥� has been a regular since he was in pre-K. On a Friday afternoon in January, he kept glancing up at a Christmas movie on TV while practicing his opinion writing in a journal. Attendance at the program is light on Fridays because many boys accompany their fathers to prayers at the mosque across the street.

鈥淎llie is a really good person,鈥� Kader said. 鈥淏efore corona, she took us on field trips. She took us to the dentist and a soccer game.鈥�

She also cooked for Kader and his sister Flower when their mother was in the hospital with pneumonia a few years ago, said their older brother, Ogbai Afeworkie, a student at Georgia State University. 

Afeworkie鈥檚 father was among those displaced by the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia in the 1990s. His father and mother lived in a refugee camp for eight years before arriving in the U.S. in 2005. 

鈥淭hey had to apply and do a lot of interviews and, most importantly, be patient,鈥� said Afeworkie. Now his parents work as housekeepers, often picking up overtime hours because their children are in the afterschool program. Reeser, he said, has helped his family acclimate to the U.S.

鈥淪he explains the bills. She explains what the teachers are asking and what [my mom] is signing,鈥� Afeworkie said. 鈥淢y mom would say that Allie is like a gift from God because she has helped us so much.鈥�

Many families stay in touch with her after they鈥檝e left the program. But as they gain enough financial security to buy houses of their own, they sometimes lose the support they enjoyed at Willow Branch. Their children, Reeser said, might have a harder time making friends.

鈥淢y kids want to go back. It helped me a lot,鈥� said Nshirimana Gorette, a Burundian mother of 11 who lived in the complex until 2020. Seven of her children attended the program. 

The family was among the more than 300,000 refugees who fled political strife and human rights violations in Burundi, beginning in 2015. They spent time in a Tanzanian refugee camp.

Now living in a two-story, single family home on a cul-de-sac in Stone Mountain, about seven miles away, the family is no longer eligible for Reeser鈥檚 program. But that didn鈥檛 stop her from guiding Karohe Dunant, Gorette鈥檚 oldest son, through the college application process.

鈥淪he was a big supporter in that phase in my life,鈥� said Dunant, now at tuition-free Berea College, near Lexington, Kentucky. Arriving in the U.S. as a young refugee, he fought feelings of inadequacy. 鈥淪he instilled in me self-esteem.鈥�

Reeser keeps in contact with older children through social media. She鈥檚 sympathetic to the pressures on adolescents, pulled between family traditions and the relative freedom of Western culture.

鈥淎 lot of these kids don鈥檛 really relate to their parents, and they don鈥檛 really relate to Americans. Their sense of identity can be confusing,鈥� she said from her apartment, where a woven 鈥淲elcome鈥� banner made by a Nepalese mother hangs over the kitchen doorway.

Reeser has felt that turmoil in her own family. Her 19-year-old foster brother is an orphan from Myanmar who arrived in the U.S. about six years ago. Bullied in middle school, he got into fights and was sent to an alternative program, where he began using crack. 

鈥淪he knows very well how difficult it can be for these kids,鈥� said Ike Reeser, Allie鈥檚 father, a minister at Northlake Church of Christ, about eight minutes from Willow Branch. 鈥淗e鈥檚 truly one of the hardest cases.鈥� 

When she was still living at home, Allie and her foster brother enjoyed watching movies and sharing chicken wings. She said she tries to be someone he can feel 鈥渟afe and secure around.鈥� 

As one of Star-C鈥檚 first afterschool directors, Reeser has helped build the model that Stagmeier expects to spread to more sites next year. In January, Star-C tapped Reeser to oversee all three of the nonprofit鈥檚 afterschool programs. 

That means she鈥檒l be spending a little less time at Willow Branch. 

But the apartment complex will remain Reeser鈥檚 home. She鈥檒l still shop at the same independent grocery store where residents buy halal meat and Burmese snacks.

鈥淚t shows that we鈥檙e equals,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not trying to do some great thing, just be a good neighbor.鈥�

Disclosure: The Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to both the Weave Project and 社区黑料.

The new mom was suffering from postpartum depression. She had just resigned from her security job of seven years, unable to take the stress. To make extra money, she began driving for ride-sharing companies, but she had to take her infant daughter along. As she struggled to make ends meet, she faced eviction from her home.

鈥淚 was overwhelmed. I knew I couldn鈥檛 give up, but I knew I didn鈥檛 have the energy to keep putting on a brave face,鈥� said Gilbert, 32. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have the fight in me.鈥�

Then a friend told Gilbert about a new program from Atlanta-based nonprofit Women in Technology (WIT) that could help her launch a career in information technology. The application was due in four days so Gilbert called her contacts with an urgent request for recommendations and submitted the application in time.

During the interview, she was sure the panel would not take her seriously.

鈥淗ow will you do this when you just walked away from your job?鈥� one panel member asked.

鈥淚 am going to show my daughter that she can do whatever she wants to do,鈥� Gilbert replied, crying.

A few days later, while she was driving for Uber, Gilbert got the call. She had been offered a spot in the program. 鈥淚 felt like I had hope,鈥� Gilbert said. 鈥淚 said, 鈥楾his is your light.鈥欌��

In a matter of weeks, the outbreak of a global pandemic would result in unprecedented numbers of women exiting the workforce, giving way to the lowest level of female participation in the workforce in more than three decades. Men have recouped all of their labor force losses since February 2020, but there are still nearly 1.1 million fewer women in the labor force, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly jobs report.

Thirty years ago, a group of women launched Women in Technology because they didn鈥檛 see other women in leadership roles. At the time, they were mostly concerned with networking, said WIT board president Patti Dismukes.

As they thought about ways to get more women in the pipeline, they formed programs for girls in middle school and high school with a career interest in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. Eventually, they would expand to college, but two years ago, they realized that to build on their mission, they would need to rethink how women were entering the field.

Job growth in STEM fields has increased 79% since 1990 while overall employment has grown 34%, based on data from Pew Research. In 2022, women are expected to hold 25% of technical roles at large tech companies despite representing 32.9% of the overall workforce, according to Deloitte Insights. Women seem to be losing out in the world of tech.

鈥淓veryone is fishing out of the same pond and colleges can鈥檛 educate and graduate people fast enough in IT,鈥� Dismukes said. 鈥淲e have to look differently at how we provide talent.鈥�

In partnership with Emory University, WIT launched a program geared toward getting Georgia鈥檚 more than 300,000 single mothers out of low paying jobs and into tech. Gilbert was among the first 20 mothers to graduate from the program.

Gilbert鈥檚 car had been repossessed because she could no longer afford to make the payments, but she was motivated. Each Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Gilbert would take Uber to Sheltering Arms where caregivers would look after her daughter while she attended class virtually. WIT covered the cost of Uber and daycare. The organization also provided laptops and internet access for all attendees and distributed food vouchers to make sure the women would have a meal.

Sometimes the course was overwhelming, said Gilbert, who had previously been interested in IT but had little formal experience. The teachers and her classmates all collaborated to make sure she understood the concepts they learned. Each week she completed several assignments for homework, and if she was unable to complete labs during class on Saturday, she had to be sure they were turned in by Sunday evening.

A week after completing the 12-week course, she had interviews with a half-dozen companies.

Dismukes said her own entry into IT was a fluke but she was good at problem-solving. At WIT, she knew she could help change lives. The program for single mothers was so successful 鈥� 100% of the 40 women who have graduated have been placed in jobs 鈥� that they launched a new program that follows a similar format but has a broader reach. The Career Connexions program is virtual and is targeted toward women nationwide who are changing careers, re-entering the workforce, never earned a college degree or want to boost their incomes and leave low-wage jobs.

It starts with a 7-week introductory course on IT basics before moving to 12 weeks of training in cybersecurity or data analytics. Women accepted into the program after a two-step interview process pay $500 for tuition. They must maintain grades of 80% or higher, attend all classes and agree to accept a job. Partner companies pay a $15,000 placement fee which covers additional costs of training. 

鈥淲e are bringing non-traditional candidates and if you don鈥檛 start thinking about non- traditional candidates you will be left behind,鈥� Dismukes said. 鈥淔inding a job is the hardest thing to do. We want women to understand it is not just getting a certification, it is the guarantee that we are going to connect you with the right companies to get the jobs.鈥�

When Gilbert was paired with Equifax, she called it 鈥渄ivine intervention.鈥� The job aligns with her skill set and her goals, she said, and in 12 weeks she went from barely scraping by to getting a 400% salary increase.

鈥淪ometimes I am in disbelief,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 think you deserve these blessings but when you get them, you realize you are worthy.鈥�

Her daughter turns 3 next month and Gilbert, who works remotely, has been able to move into her own home and replace her car.

She is moving forward with the firm belief that even when setbacks seem to hold you down, you can find the light that keeps you going.

This originally appeared at  and is published here in partnership with the .

Georgia lawmakers have halted, at least for now, the Buckhead neighborhood鈥檚 effort to secede from the rest of Atlanta.聽On Friday, House Speaker David Ralston joined other Republicans in opposing legislation that would have allowed residents in the affluent community to vote on cityhood this fall.聽

Caren Solomon Bharwani has lived her entire life in Buckhead, an exclusive Atlanta enclave known for stately homes set back from dogwood-lined streets and upscale shopping on Peachtree Road.

Her kids have enjoyed Atlanta鈥檚 school offerings, including the popular International Baccalaureate program, and she鈥檚 formed tight bonds with educators providing services to her two children with disabilities.

That could be upended, however, if a vocal segment of Buckhead鈥檚 mostly white and wealthy population achieves its goal to secede from the city. Georgia law doesn鈥檛 allow the neighborhood to form its own school district. Secession, therefore, would leave 5,500 students and 800 employees in the neighborhood鈥檚 eight schools in limbo; unless legislation passes to keep them in the Atlanta Public Schools, they鈥檇 be subsumed by the surrounding Fulton County school system. 

Bharwani said she 鈥渄esperately鈥� fears losing the support her children receive if the neighborhood secedes.

Proponents of a Buckhead breakaway 鈥� including many with school-age children 鈥� complain of rising crime, neglected potholes and an encroaching homeless population. But opponents view the effort as and legally shaky. Buckhead, which is 86 percent white, generates an estimated $230 to $300 million in property taxes that is used to fund education. As with similar secession efforts across the country, the proposal has the potential to siphon off revenue from the region鈥檚 more affluent families, leaving residents in Atlanta鈥檚 majority Black district with fewer resources.

鈥淩esidential secession movements, typically driven by wealthier white communities, are almost always bad for education,鈥� said Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank. If Buckhead is allowed to secede, 鈥渃oncentrations of poverty will increase in Atlanta, making students left behind worse off. The tax base necessary to support Atlanta public schools will suffer.鈥�

The move comes as the district continues to grapple with persistent inequities. A from the Latino Association for Parents of Public Schools estimated it would take more than a century for Black students to catch up with their white peers in reading and math.

The issue has divided neighbors and policymakers, and presented newly elected with one of the first major challenges of his tenure. It is already one of the most contentious issues before state lawmakers this year. At least two secession bills await action, and more could be introduced before the session ends.

鈥楻ight to vote鈥�

Bill White, a former Democrat-turned-Trump-fundraiser who chairs the Buckhead City Committee, insists he鈥檚 not trying to weaken the Atlanta district鈥檚 tax base. 

He promises that final legislation will specify that students can remain in their schools and the Atlanta district will hold on to its share of the property tax revenue Buckhead generates. He advises Atlanta鈥檚 district leaders 鈥� who 鈥� to stick to their mission. 

鈥淚nstead of attempting to interfere with Buckhead鈥檚 70,000 citizens鈥� absolute right to vote on its own destiny, we hope [Atlanta Public Schools] will focus all its attention, resources and capabilities on the singular and much more important goal of providing higher quality education for our beloved children,鈥� he said in a statement.

But many are skeptical of White鈥檚 promises to ensure stability for neighborhood students.

Mikayla Arciaga, a former Atlanta Public Schools teacher who lives in Buckhead and ran unsuccessfully for the school board last year, accused proponents of 鈥渂affling overconfidence.鈥�

鈥淚t might be sorted out,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ut we鈥檙e talking about our kids, who have already experienced two years of education disruption.”

White and other proponents argue that becoming a city would allow them to take public safety and other services into their own hands. Once a rural getaway for Atlanta鈥檚 old-money families, Buckhead was annexed into Atlanta in 1952. But Buckhead, like the city as a whole, has faced a recent that has put residents on edge.

last summer showed rates of robberies, aggravated assaults and car thefts were higher in Buckhead than citywide. But Atlanta鈥檚 mayor recently to open a new neighborhood police precinct and in January, a new police captain for the area said the community was starting to see a decline in .

Some parents support secession despite the uncertainty over Buckhead鈥檚 schools. Meredith Bateman, who has two children at Atlanta Classical Academy, a charter school, is among them.

A Buckhead resident since 2002, Bateman said she no longer feels safe in her community and is careful about where she stops to get gas. In 2020, a man pointed a gun at her husband and daughter during a moment of road rage on a residential street. She doesn鈥檛 allow her daughter, now 15, to go to Lenox Square 鈥� the area鈥檚 high-end shopping mall 鈥� by herself.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 not normal. She should be getting some independence,鈥� Bateman said. 鈥淕one are the days of saying, 鈥業鈥檒l drop you at the mall, and I鈥檒l pick you up later.鈥欌��

鈥楾wo years of education disruption鈥�

Opponents of secession say there are too many unanswered questions. Among them: What will happen to the district鈥檚 buildings and employees if the students become part of the Fulton schools. Atlanta school board member Michelle Olympiadis said it鈥檚 possible Fulton would buy out or lease the buildings. Employees would be displaced and have to reapply for positions.

鈥淲hat teachers are going to want to stay through that turmoil?鈥� Arciaga asked. 

But she agrees city services could improve. Some parks, she said, haven鈥檛 been maintained in years, leaving residents to pick up trash and remove broken tree limbs. 

Another complication is that the proposed city limits drawn up by the Buckhead City Committee don鈥檛 match current school attendance zones: Left out are the more diverse neighborhoods on the edges.

鈥淢agically, the areas they鈥檝e not included tend to be the higher minority areas,鈥� said Keisha Burgess Prentiss, who has a fifth grader at Bolton Academy and a younger child entering pre-K this fall.

She moved to the area specifically to enroll her children in the district鈥檚 International Baccalaureate and dual language Spanish immersion programs. But the elementary school her older daughter attends is outside the proposed boundaries, while the middle and high school lie within. If Buckhead becomes a city and the schools join the Fulton district, her children would no longer be eligible to attend. 

Leila Laniado, a proponent of secession, is confident her daughter will be able to remain in the Atlanta district. As a Hispanic woman, she rejects the notion that residents want to keep out minorities.

鈥淓very time people bring race into the discussion, it’s done purposely to divide,鈥� she said.

Fulton officials, meanwhile, have mostly stayed quiet as their legal team weighs potential scenarios. One possibility is that the two districts reach an agreement in which students living in Buckhead remain in the Atlanta district, said spokesman Brian Noyes. 

But he added that officials have avoided the debate and don鈥檛 want to 鈥渟pend a lot of energy around what-ifs.鈥�

Not the first attempt

For now, supporters and opponents are fixing their attention on the state legislature. Four Republican lawmakers from outside Buckhead introduced bills in support of secession, but that doesn鈥檛 mean state GOP leaders are unified on the issue. Former U.S. Sen. , who is challenging Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in the May primary, is in favor of a referendum on cityhood, while Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is opposed. House Speaker David Ralston hasn鈥檛 taken a stand. 

In a move some predicted would kill the effort, Duncan assigned one of the bills related to secession to an . There hasn鈥檛 been any action on the issue since mid-January, but those on either side expect they won鈥檛 know the outcome until the session ends March 31.

Duncan argues that rising crime is not unique to Buckhead and stems from racial unrest and the pandemic. Secession, he says, won鈥檛 solve the problem and would leave Atlanta with fewer financial resources to prevent crime.

鈥淐riminals will still find their way to Buckhead despite the change in mailing address,鈥� he wrote in an .

There have been in Buckhead, but they didn鈥檛 reach the legislature. A 2008 newsletter arguing in favor of a breakaway lamented that the community鈥檚 taxpayers were 鈥渟imply tired of having our votes and money taken for granted by the City of Atlanta.鈥�

Olympiadis, the Atlanta school board member, thinks the current effort has more momentum. If cityhood proponents are successful, she fears, other wealthy parts of the city, such as Midtown, will follow suit.

If the issue gets through the legislature and wins at the polls, Bharwani, an organizer of opposition group Neighbors for United Atlanta, expects the matter to wind up in court, with families hanging in the balance until it鈥檚 settled. The cityhood committee can 鈥渨rite in their bill that [Atlanta Public Schools] has to continue educating the kids,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ut there鈥檚 no provision in Georgia law that allows for any of this to happen.鈥�

With a of over 1 million daily COVID cases reported on Monday and more than this week temporarily closed or pivoted to remote instruction, educators and families are being thrust back into the existential struggle over keeping schools open.

The second half of the 2021-22 school year began with a growing list of shutdowns, including major urban districts such as Atlanta, Milwaukee and Cleveland. In Philadelphia, leaders on Monday night announced that on Tuesday, though stopped short of shutting down the entire district.

Other top school systems such as New York City and Chicago have moved forward with plans to reopen in person, but have hit snags along the way: In New York, nearly a third of students did not show up for classes on Monday, and in Chicago, a late night vote Tuesday held by the teachers union demanding to teach remotely Wednesday.

The reactions from weary parents ranged widely. 鈥淚t鈥檚 chaos,鈥� National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues The New York Times, pointing out that when schools nix plans for in-person learning at the final hour, it leaves families scrambling for child care options. 

On the other hand, with the Omicron variant rampant post-holiday, Cleveland parent Tiffany Rossman was glad schools stayed closed to start the new year. She and her teenage daughter both tested positive for the virus in December, and she fell quite ill despite her vaccination, she told 社区黑料. The mother worried that opening classrooms after the holidays could lead to infected kids spreading the virus.

Rossman acknowledged, however, that 鈥渋f I had small children and needed to go into the office then I don’t know what I would do.鈥�

While a handful of school systems had planned before the winter break to be remote for short stints in January or to close for testing, the vast majority of announcements were made last minute as record-high COVID case rates came into view. Yonkers Public Schools started classes this week remotely after of students who took rapid tests over the holidays were COVID positive. Detroit announced that school would be closed Monday through Wednesday after rapid testing revealed a positivity rate. Districts are open for in-person learning in and , but officials there had to shut down eight and 12 school buildings, respectively, for lack of staff.

鈥淎 lot of it was last second, and it continues to be,鈥� Dennis Roche, co-founder of the K-12 data tracker Burbio, told 社区黑料.

The , and school systems are exceptions to the trend, he noted, as each district had planned before the holidays to take a handful of days in the new year for students to receive rapid tests. As it currently stands, classrooms are set to open in all three districts in the coming days. Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation鈥檚 second-largest, does not re-open until Jan. 10, but has said it intends to test all students before it does.

Over the weekend, Roche watched Burbio鈥檚 jump from 1,591 to 2,181, and again on Tuesday to 3,556. Shutdowns were concentrated in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions, where current COVID rates are among the .

Amid the chaos, the Biden administration has maintained that schools should keep their doors open wherever possible and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended booster eligibility to two separate groups of children this week.

鈥淚 believe schools should remain open,鈥� the president said during a on the current Omicron surge. And in fact, despite some conspicuous closures, the vast majority of the nation鈥檚 roughly 98,000 public schools have returned from the holiday break in person. 

Hedging slightly in a conversation on Fox News Sunday, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona added: 鈥淲e recognize there may be some bumps in the road, especially this upcoming week when superintendents, who are working really hard across the country, are getting calls saying that some of their schools may have 5 to 10 percent of their staff not available.鈥�

鈥淔or anyone who has gone remote, we want to similarly keep on engaging with them, and make sure that they can come back as quickly as they can,鈥� a senior White House official told 社区黑料 Tuesday.

Federal policymakers underscore that districts can draw on American Rescue Plan dollars as well as multiple other devoted to helping K-12 facilities stave off COVID through purchasing tests and other mitigation measures.

To help schools stay open, the CDC in December endorsed 鈥渢est-to-stay鈥� practices allowing students and staff who may have been exposed to the virus to remain in the classroom if they test negative for COVID. 

The federal agency also took the controversial step on Dec. 27 of reducing its recommended quarantine timeline for infected individuals, including teachers and students, from 10 to five days. The move divided many health experts, leaving numerous observers to wonder whether the CDC was after .

But several school officials appreciated the chance for teachers and students to return more quickly to the buildings.

鈥淎nything that will help the schools to stay open is welcome,鈥� Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, told 社区黑料.

Nationwide, pediatric COVID and are at a pandemic high. But top infectious disease experts say that the vast majority of serious infections are among unvaccinated youth. Under a quarter of children ages 5 to 11 have received a single dose of the COVID vaccine, and just over half of adolescents ages 12 to 17 have been fully immunized, according to data published by the .

鈥嬧�嬧�淢ost of our pediatric population is still undervaccinated,鈥� said Kristina Deeter, a physician at Renown Children鈥檚 Hospital in Reno, Nevada. Even though the Omicron variant has generated more breakthrough infections, the pediatrician assured that the vaccines continue to be successful at their key function: preventing severe illness and death.

鈥淲e鈥檙e still so much safer having received the vaccine,鈥� she told 社区黑料.

For youth who have received both shots and are ready for a booster, the Food and Drug Administration on Monday and, on Tuesday, the CDC recommended an extra shot for , five months after the initial two-dose series.

Amid the widespread concern and flurry of new pandemic policies, a bit of good news regarding the giant spike in cases also surfaced on Sunday. In South Africa, where the Omicron variant was first identified, the surge in infections driven by the hyper-transmissible strain has , giving health experts hope that the U.S may follow a similar course in the weeks to come.

Still, other mutations of the virus may arise further down the road, Deeter pointed out. The only long-term path to move beyond the pandemic, she said, is getting immunized.

鈥淚f there鈥檚 a light at the end of the tunnel, it鈥檚 going to come through vaccination.鈥�

Quality of schools in the region, which encompasses Boise, could be a factor, according to a from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation that identifies the nation鈥檚 best and worst metro areas for educational effectiveness.聽

鈥淟iterally, you see the houses springing up like mushrooms,鈥� said Terry Ryan, CEO of Bluum, a nonprofit supporting charter and district schools in the area. 

The region is among those where schools made above-average academic progress prior to COVID-19, the report shows. With the pandemic now accelerating toward suburbs and smaller metro areas 鈥� and often away from high-priced coastal cities 鈥� the authors say families and business leaders looking to relocate should factor in school quality when deciding where to settle down.

Michael Petrilli, president of the Institute, cautioned that there鈥檚 no guarantee the pandemic hasn鈥檛 stalled progress in areas where student performance once trended upward. Some experts, for example, have called recent 鈥渟taggering.鈥� But he said the message to districts and charter schools that were effective before the pandemic is to stay the course, and those that are ineffective 鈥渃annot just go back to normal.鈥�

鈥淚 would assume that school districts and charter schools that were doing well by kids before the pandemic are probably largely the same ones doing well by them during the pandemic,鈥� he said.

Using the 鈥� a national database of student performance 鈥� and graduation data from the U.S. Department of Education, the Fordham-Chamber project focuses on 100 large and mid-sized metro areas. The top locales include Miami, which recently received back-to-back from the state; Memphis, where Black, Hispanic and low-income students have shown above-average academic growth; and the Atlanta region, which ranks fourth in the study.

Atlanta has been ranked among the best places to start a new business, attracting tech leaders like . Collaboration among districts across the metro area is one reason why students were making progress before the pandemic and are 鈥渨ell-positioned to return to growth,鈥� said Kenneth Zeff, executive director of Learn4Life, a nonprofit working to improve education outcomes across the metro Atlanta area. 鈥淪ubstantial inequities still exist, but the gap in several key indicators has been slowly eroding.鈥�

Smaller metro areas, such as Jackson, Mississippi, and Brownsville, Texas, also emerged as places where schools performed better than expected based on demographics.

Those on the lower end of the spectrum include the Salt Lake City area, Las Vegas and Tulsa. Average achievement in math and English language arts has improved over the past six to 10 years in the Las Vegas metro area 鈥� essentially the Clark County School District 鈥� but schools still perform below average nationally, according to the report. 

Eighty percent of the population

The researchers focused on the nation鈥檚 metro areas because that鈥檚 where 80 percent of the U.S. population lives and where economic activity and labor market trends tend to have the most impact. Issues such as school choice and racial segregation also affect multiple districts. 

In addition to identifying areas with above- and below-average academic growth, the researchers factored in progress among Black, Hispanic and disadvantaged students, a region鈥檚 improvement over the past six to 10 years, and high school graduation rates. They combined these indicators into a measure they call 鈥渟tudent learning accelerating metros鈥� 鈥� or SLAM. The report includes interactive features so users can isolate results for specific indicators, subject areas or demographic groups.

The authors stressed that while achievement scores might seem to be an obvious indicator of high-quality schools, achievement alone often reflects students鈥� family backgrounds instead of a school鈥檚 effectiveness.

That鈥檚 why 鈥淏est Places to Live鈥� lists should provide families a more comprehensive view of school quality instead of relying on standardized test scores, the authors wrote.

The SLAM rankings show that a metro area in which students have high achievement scores overall might not perform as well on the other measures. 

In North Carolina, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools, in the state鈥檚 Research Triangle region, has among the highest ACT scores in the state, but also large in achievement between Black and white students. 

That hasn鈥檛 stopped the region from attracting Google, Apple and Nike, which are in the area.

And the Raleigh area ranks fourth in raw achievement scores, but falls to 48th in the report when the other indicators are considered. On the other hand, the McAllen, Texas, area 鈥� which includes the Sharyland, Edinburg and Hidalgo school districts 鈥� ranks 41st in raw achievement, but third based on the report鈥檚 SLAM measure.

Brenda Berg, president and CEO of BEST NC, a nonprofit organization of business leaders in North Carolina, praised the report for providing relevant data for her state, where countywide districts include both urban centers and higher-performing suburbs. 

She said in an email that she鈥檚 鈥渕ost concerned鈥� about Wake County, which includes Raleigh, and is 鈥渕ost eager鈥� to see where the Guilford and Charlotte-Mecklenburg districts go in the years to come.Those two districts, she said 鈥渉ave some really interesting promising practices emerging鈥� around literacy and teacher recruitment in high-needs schools.

The authors note that while charter growth and district reform efforts have often focused on the cities at the heart of a metro area, the 鈥渟uburbs are where many of the kids 鈥� and much of the action 鈥� are at, and they often explain a metro鈥檚 grade.鈥�

Looking at broad trends across metro areas, however, can hide 鈥渕eaningful variation鈥� from one district to the next, said Alex Spurrier, associate partner at Bellwether Education Partners. In October, the think tank released a report showing how a lack of affordable housing in some of the nation鈥檚 most sought-after districts limits educational opportunity. 

鈥淓ven if families decide to move to a metro area with higher-performing public schools,鈥� Spurrier said, 鈥渢heir access to specific public school systems may be limited based on where they can afford housing,鈥� Spurrier said.

In December and January, his 8,900-student district just north of Atlanta partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study classroom virus transmission, ultimately adjusting their distancing protocols to reduce spread. In September, after reading an written by a Harvard University professor that proposed using rapid antigen tests to give healthy kids an alternative to quarantine, he reached out directly to the author asking about the model 鈥� and ultimately implemented the 鈥溾�� scheme in his schools. Now, the district is planning to hold for students this month as COVID shots roll out for younger kids.

But despite a keen eye for the latest coronavirus safety research, Rivera made another move in mid-October that many parents had clamored for, but health experts cautioned against: He lifted Marietta鈥檚 mask requirement.

鈥溾�嬧�媁e tried to get to a solution that we think is good for our community,鈥� the superintendent told 社区黑料. 鈥淐ould I give kids a bit more sense of normalcy back that they haven’t had for two years? I think that鈥檚 a question we鈥檙e grappling with.鈥� 

The move typifies a trend emerging nationwide, as school leaders respond to .

At least a dozen districts that previously required face coverings are now mask-optional, including ; and . Of the 200 largest U.S. school systems, 135 now have mask mandates 鈥� down from 150 on Oct. 1 and lower than at any point this school year since mid-August, according to , a data service that has tracked school policy through the pandemic.

That pattern worries Benjamin Linas, professor of medicine at Boston University.

Over the summer, the health expert used simulation modeling technology to predict how many positive COVID cases would be transmitted in schools, depending on their vaccination rates and mitigation measures. The that he and his team published in August recommended that schools drop universal face-covering rules only once 80 percent of students and staff are fully immunized and community transmission is below 10 cases per 100,000 people. 

Currently, the U.S. averages . And while as many as , of eligible youth have received both shots.

Vaccines for children ages 5 to 11 are expected to roll out in days and as many as with children in the age group plan to have their kids immunized, according to surveys, but a significant share before doing so, they say. About a quarter said they definitely would not vaccinate their children.

With vaccination rates as they currently stand, school buildings are largely full of people unprotected against the virus, Linas pointed out.

鈥淭hat is a setup for trouble in the future, having ongoing smoldering transmission because people are under vaccinated and we’re not wearing masks,鈥� he told 社区黑料. 鈥淭he virus continues, new variants emerge 鈥� those threats are real.鈥�

Other experts, including Joseph Allen, the Harvard public health professor that Rivera corresponded with about Marietta鈥檚 test-and-stay approach, argue that schools should take a more dynamic approach to masking requirements, dropping them when transmission falls. Given the current situation, he advocates for the end of all school face-covering requirements by January, if not sooner.

鈥淚f things change for the worse 鈥� and they might 鈥� then we just pull the masks back out of the drawer. But we must be just as willing to put them away when things look better,” Allen wrote in an October .

At the state level, Massachusetts has set a benchmark that aligns with the Linas鈥檚 recommendation, for any school that reaches 80 percent student and staff vaccination. But new guidance in allows schools to scrap face coverings where community transmission is low and gives districts the option to do the same if they maintain stringent quarantine rules. Neither policy accounts for immunization levels in the school community.

Georgia, similarly, is a state that gives local school leaders the power to set their own coronavirus safety policies. In Marietta, the district鈥檚 program for testing students and staff who may have been exposed to the virus played into the calculus for Rivera鈥檚 decision to go mask-optional.

鈥淭here鈥檚 an interplay between these approaches,鈥� the superintendent said. 鈥淵our approach to masks will impact the distance at which you are identifying close contacts 鈥� three feet vs. six feet, indoors. The number of students who are identified as close contacts, that drives your test-and-stay demand.鈥� 

Because 98 percent of would-be quarantines in his district never ultimately tested positive, Rivera hoped the testing policy, which the district has funded partially through relief dollars, would keep students learning in the classroom, regardless of whether they were wearing masks. 

Out of 281 tests so far administered by the program, 271 have come back negative, the superintendent said 鈥� meaning those students have been able to stay in the school building.

The 鈥渢est-to-stay鈥� strategy has been this fall and is lauded by public health experts. The CDC said in mid-October that they are considering into their school coronavirus guidance.

Regarding masking, the CDC recommends universal use, but in practice, the policies have been much more controversial, with eruptions over the mandates in dozens of districts. 

鈥淚 felt like I’ve had to navigate this path by myself,鈥� said Rivera. 鈥淚 feel like most people sit on either side of it. Either it’s, 鈥楴ope, we have to follow blindly what the CDC says,鈥� or we pretend that COVID doesn’t exist. And I don’t think either one of those is right, there’s a balance in the middle.鈥�

The softened masking rules have had some real benefits, according to teachers in the district. Foreign language classes, for instance, were strained when everyone had to cover up.

鈥淚t is really tough when kids are learning a new language for the first time to pronounce new sounds, not seeing how to form their mouth, or [seeing] my mouth because I’m covered up in a mask,鈥� Wendy Locke, a French teacher at Marietta High School, told 社区黑料.

Barbie Esquijarosa, who teaches English to non-native speakers at the high school, agrees that face coverings make school more difficult for young people learning English. But she also worries that the mask-optional policy presents an added stressor for the students she teaches, many of whom may live with older relatives and lack health insurance.

鈥淭hey come in concerned,鈥� said Esquijarosa. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e wearing [the mask] the whole time. They’ll stay away from the kids who don’t wear the masks.鈥�

What鈥檚 more, many of her students lack transportation, meaning they aren鈥檛 able to participate in Marietta鈥檚 test-and-stay program if they have possible COVID exposures.

Rivera recognizes that the program is accessible only to students with transportation and is working to designate a bus to pick up kids for COVID testing. But as of yet, no such route is in operation. Like many other districts across the country, Marietta鈥檚 bus driver reserves are amid wider facing schools and the U.S. economy.

Elsewhere, some school districts have taken an opposite stance on masking. When the department of health in Douglas County, Colorado moved to remove face-covering mandates, the school district sued on behalf of nine medically vulnerable students 鈥� winning a on the new rule.

鈥淣o parent should be forced to choose between sending their child to school and risking their child鈥檚 health, and no family should have to fear that their child may face life-threatening illness just to access their right to a great education,鈥� Superintendent Corey Wise said in a statement.

Back in Marietta, there has been no increase in coronavirus infections since Rivera dropped universal masking rules. Total infections have fallen from 233 in the first five weeks of schools to 143 in the seven weeks that followed, according to the district.

Still, Linas, the Boston University medical expert, cautions against the mask-optional policy. 

Breathing room now for students and staff may mean breathing room for the virus 鈥� to mutate and evolve 鈥� in the long run, he said.

鈥淚t just doesn鈥檛 make sense to start rolling those dice when we鈥檙e so close to the actual finish line.鈥�

But Ricardo Miguel Martinez, president of the Latino Association for Parents of Public Schools, an advocacy group to persistent achievement gaps, wasn鈥檛 buying it. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got to stop saying Atlanta is Wakanda,鈥� he told 社区黑料. 鈥淚n Wakanda, Black and brown kids know how to read.鈥�

Martinez is among those looking to next Tuesday’s school board election in Atlanta 鈥� where all nine seats are up for grabs 鈥� as an opportunity to address long-standing inequities in the 51,000-student, majority Black district. Pre-pandemic test scores showed that only about a third of Hispanic and a quarter of Black students scored proficient or higher in math and English language arts, compared with over 80 percent of white students.

鈥淭his election is where we start to say no more,鈥� Martinez said.

In a district experiencing seismic demographic shifts, candidates represent a wide cross section of residents, from some who prioritize the most marginalized students to those who are well-connected to the city鈥檚 power structure. Atlanta is an emerging , where projects like are driving up local real estate costs. Lower-income families are increasingly fleeing the city for more affordable housing in the suburbs, leaving some advocates to wonder if their voices are being heard.

鈥淚t really feels like our families are being forced out,鈥� said Kimberly Dukes, the executive director of , which helps parents track the quality of their children鈥檚 schools. “A lot of people look to Altanta as a dream. If you have money, you may be all right.鈥� 

This is the last time all seats will be at once. A new state law, passed last year, will stagger the terms of board members. That means five of the winners will run again in two years, and four will serve a full four years. 

Four incumbents, including board Chairman Jason Esteves, are running for re-election, along with 18 challengers. Only one incumbent, Michelle Olympiadis, is running unopposed. The board manages a $1.4 billion budget, roughly twice that of the Atlanta City Council. But in a year when voters are also choosing the mayor and council members 鈥� and when crime rates and a lack of affordable housing have dominated the news 鈥� Esteves wonders if education is getting the attention it deserves.

鈥淲e鈥檙e at a pivot point as a school system and as a city. We have the opportunity to tackle generational issues,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he issues we have with poverty are manifested in the things we鈥檙e seeing related to crime. How we tackle those issues directly impacts the school system.鈥�

A September showed a staggering 62 percent increase in homicides between 2019 and 2020. in July of a woman and her dog in the city鈥檚 Piedmont Park is among the senseless crimes leaving the city on edge and calling for solutions.

Crime has also become a central issue in the mayor鈥檚 race, with some candidates drawing connections between the role of education and improving the quality of life for residents. With Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms not running for re-election, the slate includes former mayor , who has promoted increased use of recreation centers to deter youth crime. Meanwhile, Courtney English, a former school board chairman, is running for . He鈥檚 currently director of community development for a nonprofit providing afterschool programs in apartment complexes near low-performing schools. 

City leaders don鈥檛 have any authority over the district, but a platform that includes coordination between the board, the council and the mayor鈥檚 office can 鈥渃arry a lot of weight,鈥� said Greg Clay, who served on a task force that wrote the district鈥檚 equity and social justice in 2019. He added that council and mayoral candidates who say, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not my responsibility鈥� when asked about education won鈥檛 be well-received.

鈥楢 change in the demographics鈥�

With more white and affluent residents drawn to Atlanta鈥檚 tech and financial sectors, the city is considered to have the widest in the nation. 

Those population shifts are fueling a threatened secession by the high-priced Buckhead neighborhood, where rising crime 鈥� including a 40 percent increase in this year 鈥� is the top concern. A separate Buckhead City would be a financial blow to the district鈥檚 tax base. estimated the district would lose $232 million 鈥� about a quarter of its local tax revenue. The legislature would still have to pass a bill to bring the question before voters in November 2022.

鈥淭he status of nearly 5,500 APS students who live within the boundaries of the proposed city would be in limbo,鈥� according to a statement from the district. 

For now, parents in Buckhead and other north Atlanta neighborhoods have more immediate concerns 鈥� traffic gridlock, underfunding of International Baccalaureate and dual language immersion programs, and a splitting of some elementary schools that has put an added strain on parents. They say they fight the perception that they鈥檙e spoiled and always get their way. 鈥淭here is commentary at times about how North Atlanta gets everything at the cost or sake of other clusters,鈥� board candidate Jennifer McDonald said at a September candidate forum. 鈥淔rankly, I don鈥檛 feel like that鈥檚 accurate or fair.鈥�

Black families, meanwhile, are increasingly moving to the suburbs, where housing is more affordable. Between 2010 and 2020, the growth of the white population in Atlanta was almost five times that of Black residents, compiled by the Atlanta Regional Commission.

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to have a lot of voters who know very little about what is going on in the schools,鈥� said Esteves, adding that those who put their children in schools in the city鈥檚 wealthier neighborhoods, north of downtown, might not understand why a school on the south side receives more funding per student. 鈥淲e have been 鈥� focused on equity and distributing resources based on need. A change in the demographics of the city requires us to continually talk about how Atlanta Public Schools does things and why.鈥� 

But Martinez said higher per-student funding hasn鈥檛 changed the culture of low-income schools. His organization鈥檚 argues that the district needs to do a better job learning what makes a team of teachers successful at one school and replicate those practices at schools that haven鈥檛 seen academic growth in years. 

The fate of stagnating schools is another issue facing the new board. Earlier this month, members approved that directs Superintendent Lisa Herring to implement a 鈥渉igh-impact intervention鈥� if a school doesn鈥檛 improve after three years. Those actions can range from merging under-enrolled schools to allowing charter school organizations to run them. Olympiadis was the only one on the board to oppose the policy, arguing that charter schools drain resources from the district.

According to a 2021 budget , 17 percent of district funds go toward charters, a share that鈥檚 still growing as charter schools add more grade levels. 鈥淎ll that money goes out the door before we figure out how we鈥檙e going to disperse funds across the rest of our schools,鈥� Olympiadis said in an interview.

While school choice hasn鈥檛 been a major point of debate in the campaign, , a nonprofit that trained 23 potential candidates for this year鈥檚 election, has endorsed those who support 鈥渆xpanding school options,鈥� said founding executive director Anthony Wilson. The organization鈥檚 platform is for students to have a 鈥渉igh-quality school within walking distance of their home,鈥� he said.

Whether Herring can ensure more families have access to those high-quality schools is one issue the newly elected board will consider when it decides whether to renew her contract in 2023. Several candidates that she could not have stepped into the role at a worse time, and has done her best considering the challenges of the pandemic and remote learning. As with urban districts nationally, educators and parents worry the pandemic has only worsened achievement gaps. , the percentage of elementary school students scoring in the lowest level in reading increased from 34 percent in 2019 to 46 percent this year.聽

In fact, yawning achievement gaps played an important role in the decision to hire Herring in the first place. Under former superintendent Meria Carstarphen 鈥� who helped the district move past a 鈥� there was overall growth in the percentage of students scoring proficient on state tests. The graduation rate has reached 80 percent, up from 51 percent in 2012.

But board members who voted to replace Carstarphen, and advocates for Black and Hispanic students, said those gains haven鈥檛 been spread evenly across the district. Seventy-seven percent of Black students graduate, compared to almost 97 percent of white students.

鈥楽truggling in the system鈥�

Other candidates have reservations about Herring, saying she needs to seek more parent and community input before making decisions. During the September forum, some candidates noted that the district often blindsides parents by sending important messages on Friday afternoons. A plan to change high school schedules to accommodate longer school days for elementary students drew widespread opposition.

The district has since hired a marketing and communications firm to improve its relationships with parents, incumbent Erika Mitchell said during the forum. 

Royce Carter Mann, a 19-year-old candidate who graduated from the district last year, is among those calling for greater transparency. Though young, Mann grew up in a politically active family with a grandmother who worked in the Carter administration. Named for the former president, Mann campaigned for Sens. John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in a January special election that gave Democrats control of the U.S. Senate.

Mann nurtured his interest in education policy while interning for the Atlanta school board. He pushed for the district’s new and wants students to have more say in their education.

鈥淲hen students are included, it鈥檚 almost as a reward for being a high-achieving student,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the students who are struggling in the system that we need to listen to the most.鈥�

Mann supported a campaign to Midtown High last year, dropping the name of Henry W. Grady, a Civil War-era journalist who didn鈥檛 support equality for freed slaves. Last week, another school was renamed for Atlanta baseball legend , replacing that of Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader Forrest Hill.

While the symbolism is important, parents in the city鈥檚 predominantly Black southside neighborhoods want more than just school name changes. At the September candidate forum, board member Mitchell, whose constituents include those families, said, 鈥淲e need to have equitable options in our schools so we can retain our students in our area, so they can be proud of the schools they鈥檙e attending.鈥� 

Lead Image: Atlanta Public Schools board members and officials celebrate the opening of the district鈥檚 new Center for Equity and Social Justice. (Atlanta Public Schools)

Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday it would be possible for federal relief funds to cover salaries if the governor follows through on withholding pay from superintendents and board members who require students to wear masks.

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鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at a range of options,鈥� she said, adding that any action the administration takes could impact the 鈥渉andful of states that are putting in place measures that make it more difficult for 鈥� leaders in the education field to protect students and their communities.鈥�

But DeSantis shot back, saying it would be inappropriate for the administration to intervene.

鈥淚 think that they really believe government should rule over the parents’ decisions,鈥� he said during a . 鈥淭he parents are in the best position to know what’s best for their kids.鈥�

DeSantis, the White House and school officials in districts such as Broward County and Miami-Dade are taking firmer stands on the issue as the state鈥檚 COVID-19 positivity rates and hospitalizations .

Florida鈥檚 brinkmanship on masks comes as districts across the country are feeling the impact of the more aggressive Delta variant and the pandemic once again is interfering with what parents and officials hoped would be a typical back-to-school season. Last week, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona even raised the possibility of a return to remote learning.

鈥淸If] the community spread gets to a certain level, it may be best to have students learning from home,鈥� he said during a Friday town hall in Boston with the YMCA and the Boys and Girls Clubs. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e going to do everything in our power not to go there. The kids suffered enough.鈥�

Some Florida district leaders say they鈥檙e not intimidated by the governor鈥檚 threats and argue they have a duty to require masks temporarily.

鈥淚 have a moral responsibility to be my brother鈥檚 and sister鈥檚 keeper, even if it means my salary is taken away,鈥� Rosalind Osgood, chair of the Broward County school board, said Tuesday during a special meeting where members voted to keep the mask mandate in place. 鈥淚 wonder if the governor has visited the ICU lately.鈥�

The vote came after more than an hour of passionate arguments from parents and staff members on both sides of the issue.

鈥淲e鈥檙e really lucky that we have such a simple way to protect each other 鈥� by wearing a simple cloth mask over our face,鈥� one mother, with her kindergarten daughter on her hip, told the board. 鈥淵ou have an entire community behind you.鈥�

Another mother said the board is infringing on her right to make decisions that affect her child.

鈥淢y child does not want to wear a mask,鈥� she told the board. 鈥淚f the masks were working, why is my child having to be quarantined from exposure so many times?鈥�

Meanwhile officials in Miami-Dade County Public Schools are still weighing their decision on mask rules, and Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said he鈥檒l listen to the advice of health experts.

鈥淎t no point shall I allow my decision to be influenced by a threat to my paycheck; a small price to pay considering the gravity of this issue and the potential impact to the health and well-being of our students and dedicated employees,鈥� he said in a statement.

鈥楰eep schools open鈥�

Florida is one of eight states not allowing local flexibility regarding mask mandates, according to Burbio鈥檚 . Those who disagree with the governor鈥檚 position have taken different approaches to the issue.

Some are maintaining that they still have a mask mandate in place, but are allowing parents to opt out. In , it鈥檚 sufficient for parents to make the request. But in Alachua County, which includes Gainesville, a doctor鈥檚 note is required.

鈥淚’ve been called a monster, child-abuser, communist, fascist, idiot and other names not fit to print. I’ve been threatened with legal action, protests, militia 鈥榚nforcement鈥� and worse,鈥� Alachua Superintendent Carlee Simon wrote in Monday about her decision to require masks for the first two weeks of school, which began Tuesday. 鈥淐ertainly we鈥檙e concerned about the threat of lost funding, but it shouldn鈥檛 come to that. After all, we want what DeSantis wants: to keep schools open and our kids in the classroom.鈥�

Simon noted that the state its Hope Scholarship voucher program to include those who prefer a school requiring masks. The program previously only applied to students who have been bullied, harassed or assaulted, allowing them to transfer to another private or public school. Broward County board members said that new rule only hurts public schools if more families opt to go private.

Some parents think DeSantis is making the right call.

鈥淭he silver lining of COVID is that it doesn鈥檛 impact kids,鈥� said Bill Gilles, who has two children in the St. Johns County School District, which includes St. Augustine. The district is complying with the governor鈥檚 order.

Children represent less than 10 percent of COVID-19 cases internationally, according to the .

Gilles said he and his wife were more accepting of masks last school year before vaccines were available. But now, young people more likely to become infected are the 鈥渂ar crowd and not the school-age crowd,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t just doesn鈥檛 justify putting burdens on kids.鈥�

According to the state health department鈥檚 data, are 14 percent among children under 12 and 20 percent for 12- to 19-year-olds. About 1 in every 100,000 children in Florida, 17 and under, has been hospitalized for COVID-19, which is roughly double the last peak at .56 per 100,000 in January, to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But DeSantis said in his comments Tuesday that RSV, a common respiratory infection, is contributing to increased hospitalization rates.

In June, the CDC noted that RSV cases were and that the state has a longer season of the infection than others.

鈥楾he worsening situation鈥�

Nationally, the majority of states are leaving the decision about masks up to local officials, and for some parents in districts where masks aren鈥檛 mandated, that鈥檚 a problem.

鈥淥ur preference is for our kids to be in person, but for everyone to wear a mask,鈥� said Alan Seelinger, a parent of three children in Georgia鈥檚 Cobb County School District. Unlike other metro Atlanta districts, Cobb does not require masks and is no longer taking students鈥� temperatures or asking about COVID-19 symptoms.

A week into the new school year, however, nearly 1,500 cases have across the metro area.

鈥淚t is regrettable that this pandemic was ever politicized, so we simply ask that you employ a data- and science-driven approach in light of the worsening situation we are seeing today,鈥� the Seelingers wrote in their letter to the board last week, sharing a Bible verse about looking out 鈥渇or the interests of others.鈥�

Seelinger, who has two children who still aren鈥檛 old enough for vaccines, would like to see the district renew the option for virtual learning. While the district still allows remote learning, parents had to make the choice at the end of last school year.

Parents in the county who want masks at the district office on Thursday.

鈥淜ids have a right to a safe school, and right now Cobb schools aren鈥檛 safe,鈥� Seelinger said.

Opinions about masks largely fall along partisan lines, with more than three-fourths of Democrats in a recent saying they鈥檒l put on a mask in public all or most of the time, compared to less than 40 percent of Republicans.

In California, one of nine states currently with a mask mandate for schools, the issue surfaced in a recent debate among leading Republican candidates vying to unseat Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in a September recall election. All four candidates participating in the debate mask mandates.

The Delta variant, however, has been enough to change some Republican鈥檚 minds. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said he regrets signing a law in April banning mask mandates. He has tried to change the legislation, but lawmakers have declined to revisit the issue. On Friday, a judge temporarily blocked the law, to require masks.

鈥淚 can only hope in my heart this is what happens to Gov DeSantis,鈥� Broward County board member Nora Rupert said Tuesday.

Parents and community members know Kimberly Robel, principal of San Bernardino鈥檚 North Verdemont Elementary School, as an unshakably enthusiastic leader. The administrator gives off 鈥渁 cheerleader energy because she鈥檚 just so gung-ho, rah-rah,鈥� said district spokesperson Maria Garcia.

But last week, Robel was anxious.

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She was planning for her school鈥檚 Aug. 2 reopening, when the full 516-student body would return in person to classrooms. For the entirety of the past school year, the 47,000-student San Bernardino City Unified School District had remained fully virtual with no face-to-face instruction. Aside from a cohort of young people who participated in a three-week summer program at Robel鈥檚 elementary school in July, none of her learners had stepped foot inside the building since March 2020.

Fears replayed in her head like a song she couldn鈥檛 quite get out.

鈥淲e worry about our kids getting sick, worry about adults getting sick,鈥� Robel told 社区黑料, wondering, 鈥淚s the Delta variant going to devastate us again? Are we going to have to shut down again?鈥�

Yet come Monday, the school was again filled with the long-awaited buzz of students, and to the great relief of many, the day went off without a hitch, according to Garcia. Across the district, some and North Verdemont reported no COVID cases.

鈥淚t鈥檚 something that we have missed so much,鈥� said Robel. 鈥淭he little faces and eyes smiling over the mask 鈥� it just makes your heart kind of explode.鈥�

After a summer that brought renewed pandemic worries amid a surge in Delta variant infections, and with children under 12 not yet eligible for coronavirus vaccines, the return to full-time, in-person learning that appeared all but inevitable this spring as schools embraced reopening is now shadowed by doubt.

Hallways across the country are beginning to once again echo with excited conversations and the squeak of new sneakers. Among the first to go back are districts like San Bernardino and some others that took a conservative approach to COVID mitigation by remaining fully remote or hybrid last year. Their first-out-of-the-gate experiences may prove a bellwether for what鈥檚 to come this fall.

鈥淭hey’re the ones to watch whether they open traditional (in person, five days a week), because they haven’t been traditional in over a year,鈥� Dennis Roche, who has tracked school reopenings through the pandemic as co-founder of the website Burbio, told 社区黑料.

Schools that reopened fully last spring, 鈥渢hey鈥檝e already rode this train,鈥� Robel admits. But as her district marches forward with the return to classrooms, the principal is confident that they will rise to any challenges that may unfold.

鈥淭he people here are resilient,鈥� she said of her community, which weathered a mass terrorist shooting in 2015 that claimed the lives of 14 individuals and seriously injured another 22.

Clayton County Public Schools, a suburban district just south of downtown Atlanta, also returned to the closest it’s been to normal schooling since March 2020 when it reopened Monday. After the majority of its students remained remote through the last school year, about 95 percent of the district’s 52,000 students returned to in-person learning this week.

鈥淲e are ready,鈥� Teffany Bedford, a third-grade teacher at Fountain Elementary School, told 社区黑料. 鈥淲e feel safe. I think it鈥檚 going to be great getting back to those face-to-face interactions, which is what we’re used to.鈥�

At her school, only about half of families came back to school last spring, Principal Jamilah Hud-Kirk told 社区黑料, while this August, all but eight families have chosen to attend in person.

鈥淲e鈥檙e excited to welcome them,鈥� said Hud-Kirk. 鈥淲e missed our scholars and they missed us.鈥�

With the Delta variant , masks are required in her building and across Clayton County schools, as they are in San Bernardino. The California district has also installed air filters and updated ventilation systems in each of its schools.

But additionally, the administrators at both Fountain and North Verdemont have put a premium on communicating their reopening plans clearly with families. Both held virtual information sessions for community members to learn about their school鈥檚 reopening plan and ask any questions. Last week, teachers at Fountain directly called the households of every student in their classes. Ms. Bedford, as her students call her, was able to connect with the families of every single youngster on her list.

鈥淵ou have to meet your community where they are,鈥� said Hud-Kirk.

Not all school systems, however, were able to respond as readily to parent concerns. Tucson Unified School District, which ended last year in a hybrid learning scheme and returns students to classrooms Aug. 5, had planned to begin the year without requiring face coverings due to an Arizona state law banning mask mandates. That edict stands even after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their school guidance with a recommendation for universal teacher and student masking in late July, and despite State Superintendent Kathy Hoffman calling on the governor鈥檚 office to . Gov. Doug Ducey doubled down instead, calling the CDC鈥檚 new guidelines 鈥�.鈥�

At a school board meeting in late July, a steady stream of public comments prompted Tucson Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo to remind viewers that 鈥渢he decision of whether or not to mandate masks in any Arizona school or school district is no longer in the hands of any school governing board, superintendent or principal.鈥�

Despite that, at an emergency meeting called the morning before school opened, the Tucson Unified board did just that, . By doing so, the district joined 鈥� two of which are in Phoenix 鈥� in defiance of the ban.

鈥淭hey really do have their hands tied,鈥� Clare Robinson, parent of a 7-year-old in the district, lamented before the board voted to disregard state law. The young mother was already planning on sending her child to school clad with a face covering and, at that point, just hoping other parents would do the same.

But without a universal masking policy, Robinson told 社区黑料 she was worried kids would increasingly skip out on wearing face coverings. At her son鈥檚 summer camp, for instance, fewer and fewer kids kept their masks on as the weeks went by, building a social pressure against masking.

Perhaps out of concerns for kids鈥� safety, slots in the district鈥檚 virtual learning program were filling rapidly. On July 20, enrollment had spiked from 700 to 1,200 in just a week. 鈥淲e are projecting that the numbers will keep going up,鈥� Trujillo said at the time.

Still, the vast majority of the district鈥檚 47,000 students will be attending school in person. As of Aug. 3, only 2,045 students were enrolled in the district鈥檚 virtual academy, according to spokesperson Veronica Castro-Vega 鈥� that鈥檚 slightly below the 5 percent opt-out rates in San Bernardino or Clayton County.

Robinson says many Tucson parents who were uncomfortable with their school鈥檚 previous masking policy faced a tough choice, especially if their child struggled with remote learning. On balance, most students tuning in online fared worse than their in-person peers, copious research shows.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 see [virtual school] as the answer that鈥檚 best for the greater good,鈥� said Robinson. For her own family, Robinson had been considering a temporary move to her parents鈥� home in Berkeley, California, where masks in schools were never in doubt.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona seconds Robinson鈥檚 stance, advocating for schools to return students to face-to-face learning this fall 鈥� .

“We know that mask wearing and mitigation strategies allow [schools] to reopen safely,鈥� the education secretary told National Public Radio Monday. If increased spread of the virus shutters schools, he said 鈥渢o me, that鈥檚 a failure of adults.鈥�

As the new school year unfolds in San Bernardino, where masking is a non-negotiable, Principal Robel has navigated some unforeseen hurdles: staffing is a bit short, and she wishes her school had held a welcome session for first-graders and their families who, while learning virtually last year, never became familiar with the ins and outs of the building. But the bumps are smoothing out and the principal believes her community can face whatever COVID’s next curve may be for the 2021-22 school year.

鈥淚 think they鈥檙e feeling cautiously optimistic,鈥� she said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about change over the past year, from the way people entertain, to how people work, to how people date, to how people eat, to how people are surviving.

The ecosystem of public education has been no different, as millions of students across the country have to make the shift from in-person instruction to virtual learning. Imagine what that must be like to go from seeing and interacting with your friends and classmates every day at school to learning on a computer at home.

Since the pandemic began, homeschooling has reportedly been hard on families, parents, and students alike. One Atlanta school is using innovation to bring excitement back to learning and education again.

The Zucchinis Homeschool Co-op opened in summer 2020. Founders Mikala Streeter and Khabral Muhammad said they hope to help families rethink what education looks like.

Both teachers themselves, Streeter and Muhammad have made it their mission to assist communities of color in Atlanta with their innovative and creative school curriculum as an alternative to virtual learning.

鈥淲e started the school because of the pandemic,鈥� Streeter said. 鈥淭his has been a moment for families to rethink what education looks like. Families don鈥檛 want to go back into a traditional box. We want to create that space for them. We are experienced educators.鈥�

Parents reached out to Streeter and Muhammad, who both teach at The Life School in Atlanta, in search of an alternative to online learning because it was not working for them during COVID.

鈥淎 lot of schools are closed and have shifted away from in-person learning. We discovered this similar need and were able to address it. Online learning was not working and we came up with something practical,鈥� Muhammad said. 鈥淭here is a real struggle to find diversity and affordability in other schools. Our intention was to address the needs of a certain community.鈥�

The name of the school came about during a planning meeting. Streeter and Muhammad said the name of the school should be cute and have cultural relevance grounded in the community.

Finally landing on Zucchinis, the duo said they went back to the African, Pan-African, Southern traditions that helped to sustain communities of color: food to vegetables, then squash to zucchini.

Throughout the day, students are learning English, math, science, social studies, world languages, music, and the Arts. However, it is not so much what they are learning, but instead how the students are learning that makes Zucchinis Homeschool Co-op unique.

The school incorporates what Streeter and Muhammad have coined the three P鈥檚 in their curriculum that makes learning fun and exciting for students to further their development: personalization, play and exploration, and passion projects.

Personalization allows the teacher to get to know the student and the student鈥檚 goals in a smaller learning community, Streeter explained. Students get personalized and customized service and support from the teachers. Students can also get up and move around, take breaks, and are involved in discussions, learning about animals, nutrition, other cultures, and even engineering.

鈥淭he students have had chickens, turtles, and rabbits in the classroom and help care for the animals,鈥� Muhammad said. 鈥淲e grow plants and we make a salad or feed the animals with the plants. The students learn with their minds and body.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about memorizing facts,鈥� he added. 鈥淭he students are doing a lot with their hands and body, learning about who they are and developing their own voice.鈥�

In the play and exploration phase, students develop their social, emotional, and behavioral skills, as they play throughout the day interacting with other students through guided and free playtime.

As the students develop their passion projects, the students have time to work on projects that they are really excited about, from creating a comic book to fashion design, from cooking to coding and robotics, and even painting. Passion projects like these that keep the students interested are an important part of the Zucchinis experience, according to Muhammad.

鈥淗istorically, our communities have been blocked out when it comes to access to wealth and high-quality educational programs,鈥� Muhammad said. 鈥淲e wanted to do something different for the community.鈥�

Muhammad鈥檚 four-year-old son attends Zucchinis Homeschool Co-Op. He was challenged with finding a school that was close, safe, and familiar for his son, which was impossible for him to find during the pandemic.

Streeter, who teaches math, and Muhammad, who teaches science, both volunteer their time at Zucchinis to keep the project alive. Muhammad took advantage to enroll his young son at the school too.

鈥淚n other school settings there may be obstacles, but my son鈥檚 skin color and hair texture are celebrated, and being in this school is helping him come out of his shell,鈥� Muhammad said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 interacting with other kids his age, learning about sharing, and is excited to tell me about the things that he has learned. He does it all without fear.鈥�

What also distinguishes Zucchinis Homeschool Co-op from other schools is that it is affordable for its students to attend, according to Streeter.

鈥淥ur school is $500 per month. It鈥檚 affordable with very high quality and enriching oriented program,鈥� said Streeter. 鈥淎ll of our families are families of color.鈥�

There are still opportunities for the community to get involved. Parents and high school students volunteer their time and help the students with learning. The school also uses PPE, sterilization, daily screenings, and the kids are required to wear masks.

鈥淧eople have been generous and have shared ideas and ways people can get involve and contribute,鈥� said Streeter.

鈥淵ou have to approach education in different ways,鈥� said Streeter. 鈥淚nnovations are different in different communities (Blacks vs white). There is a play on personalized experiences and we are making education exciting.鈥�

Disclosure: The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative provides financial support to 社区黑料.

On Fridays, Mariela Garcia listens with earbuds as classes from Eastwood Academy in Houston stream in through Microsoft Teams.

But she also keeps an eye on business.

When her mother lost her job at an adoption agency at the start of the pandemic, the senior began thinking of ways to contribute 鈥� and cover her college application fees. Each week, she spends three days shopping and prepping ingredients for her Mexican pastry business, Hecho con Amor, or Made with Love. To get ready for her weekly shift at a farmer鈥檚 market, she folds empanada dough over apple, pumpkin and cheesecake filling while signed into virtual classes.

鈥淚鈥檓 listening to the teacher, but I鈥檓 also getting DMs on my Instagram 鈥� 鈥楬ey, what are your flavors?鈥欌�� said Garcia. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 potential business, and I would hate to lose any customers.鈥�

For many teens, a year of the coronavirus has meant not only the loss of in-person learning and time with friends, but added shifts at convenience stores and retail shops to help keep their families afloat during the recession. As kids adapt, many of their teachers and schools are improvising as well, extending deadlines and creating new ways to stay in touch. The huge workload is leaving many students stressed out, and some teachers worry they鈥檙e in danger of becoming a statistic: the estimated 1 out of 20 teens who drop out of high school each year, according to .

Jay Novelo, a dean at Tyee High School, near Seattle, was hired to handle student discipline. But with schools closed, his main job is keeping tabs on students and encouraging them to not give up on school.

For most, it鈥檚 a tough choice. 鈥淒o I want to 鈥� survive school or survive life?鈥� Novelo said. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 blame the students 鈥� a lot of them choose work.鈥�

One of the 14 students he checks in on weekly is Swin Cob贸n Sanchez, who bounces between school and two jobs. By day, he cleans houses with his immigrant parents; at night, he mops, vacuums and empties trash at a downtown Seattle medical clinic 鈥� a second job he picked up in part to help pay the family鈥檚 bills.

That doesn鈥檛 leave a lot of room in the day for remote learning, but he makes time for weekly check-ins with Novelo. They chat about soccer, Sanchez鈥檚 2017 Chevy Silverado and the extra class he鈥檚 taking to hit the 24 credits he needs to graduate this year.

鈥淚 like it, because I know somebody is staying on me,鈥� Sanchez said.

Teens who have joined the workforce hail from families that are predominantly Hispanic and Black, front-line workers and first-generation immigrants who have borne the brunt of the job loss and brought on by the pandemic, teachers and counselors said. , four in 10 children live in families that have struggled to cover basic expenses during the past year. But the relief bill President Joe Biden signed last week aims to fill some of those gaps, providing most families up to $300 per week for each child through the end of 2021.

Some students, like Garcia, are thriving under the flexibility afforded by the pandemic: Despite the job, she鈥檚 earning A鈥檚 and B鈥檚. But the lifestyle is not for everyone.

鈥淭here are definitely some kids who are having issues around time management,鈥� said Joshua Weintraub, the director of college and career success at Lighthouse Community Charter School in Oakland, California. 鈥楾here aren鈥檛 enough hours in the day. They鈥檙e prescribing themselves caffeine.鈥�

Yasmine Esquivel, a senior at Lighthouse, works up to 30 hours a week at Gap, helping her mom with groceries because she saw 鈥渉ow tight money was.鈥�

鈥淚 get stressed and I know my mom can see it,鈥� she said. 鈥淪he sometimes tells me to leave my job to focus on school.鈥�

鈥楾he lifeline our students needed鈥�

Balancing work and academics is harder in districts where schools have reopened. When in-person classes resumed at Oak Ridge High School in Orlando, Florida, in August, only about 500 of the school鈥檚 2,600 students returned.

Jenevieve Jackson, who teaches digital photo production, still can鈥檛 get in touch with who are supposed to be in her classes. Administrators, she said, have been 鈥渞elentless in trying to find out what is going on with these kids.鈥�

She suspects a lot of them supervise younger siblings or went back to jobs at places like SeaWorld and Universal Studios when the parks reopened.

Jackson drove to students鈥� houses in September to loan her remaining classroom cameras to those without cell phones so they could work on projects. And she gave them her own version of a 鈥減andemic stimulus.鈥�

鈥淚 said, 鈥榊our grades suck. Here鈥檚 150 points,鈥欌�� she said.

Teens don鈥檛 always work traditional jobs. Some young Black men in Atlanta have been surviving the pandemic as 鈥溾�� peddling cold drinks to motorists at freeway off-ramps. Javon Solomon, a ninth grader at Booker T. Washington High School, was one of them.

鈥淢y mom was working in the mall. She was released from her job,鈥� Solomon said. 鈥淲e didn’t have enough money or the resources we needed.鈥�

He could pocket $120 a day selling water, but didn鈥檛 always feel safe. Many residents consider the young entrepreneurs a nuisance. Fights have broken out between kids competing for street corners and some have gotten arrested.

C.J. Stewart, a former outfielder for the Chicago Cubs, gave Solomon an alternative 鈥� earn $25 an hour as a coaching 鈥渁mbassador鈥� working with young Little Leaguers, often from affluent white families.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e not giving Black teenage boys an opportunity to make money, you鈥檙e not really helping them,鈥� Stewart said. His youth baseball nonprofit 鈥� Launch Expose Advise Direct, or LEAD 鈥� connects families with resources for food, clothing, housing and jobs. Some of them, he said, would be homeless if their sons weren鈥檛 in the program.

Solomon has the potential to earn over $1,000 a month with private clients and group lessons, in exchange for maintaining good grades, attendance and behavior. Angela Coaxum-Young, principal at Washington High, called LEAD 鈥渢he lifeline some of our students needed to stay in the game of life.鈥� When schools were closed, Stewart was often her only means of communicating with students because the 鈥渇amily was without a phone or had abruptly moved.鈥�

Keeping up with those transitions in students鈥� lives is why the Highline Public Schools near Seattle assigned staff members like Novelo at Tyee to stay in contact with students. Superintendent Susan Enfield called it 鈥渢he most important thing that we do.鈥�

Novelo still has students he can鈥檛 reach because of outdated phone numbers and addresses. Students are supposed to let schools know if they鈥檙e working, but he discovered many of them hadn鈥檛 bothered. In addition to weekly Zoom meetings or phone calls to 14 students, he makes socially distant home visits and even delivered an internet hotspot to a student working at Jiffy Lube. The teen offered him a free oil change in return.

If school resumes this semester, Sanchez said he鈥檒l give up his second job cleaning the clinic at night. But he gets upset when his parents talk of exhaustion, aches and pains. He wants to keep helping with the bills. With Sanchez, they can clean more houses.

鈥淢y parents are getting older,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 want to leave them in a safe place.鈥�

This is one installment of a special series published in partnership with The Guardian: ‘聽See additional coverage of the past year for students and schools: ‘12 Million Students Still Lack Reliable Internet‘ and ‘Families Face Steep Truancy Fines, Contentious Court Battles As Pandemic Creates School Attendance Barriers.’

Lead Image: Swin Cob贸n Sanchez cleans a medical clinic in downtown Seattle in the evenings, a second job he picked up last summer. (University of Washington Medicine Primary Care at Belltown)

Atlanta native Kimberly Dukes had volunteered at her children鈥檚 schools for over 10 years, but she never knew that the schools she sent her children to were categorized as failing by the Atlanta Public Schools. After absorbing that news, she quickly realized that the district wasn鈥檛 willing to work with families to provide them with better educational opportunities. Dukes refused to accept the status quo, instead taking it upon herself to begin advocating on behalf of her children and many others from similar backgrounds.

Fast-forward to spring 2019, when Dukes co-founded , a parent advocacy group with a mission to empower parents to disrupt inequities in education. The group was immediately tasked with working to improve the district鈥檚 turnaround strategy so that all students would have access to a better education.

Nowadays, when she isn鈥檛 tending to her 10 children, who all currently attend Atlanta public schools, or spearheading her organization鈥檚 parent fellowship training program, you can find Dukes and many other parent advocates sitting down with the Democratic presidential candidates to discuss their education plans and press them on the need to offer sufficient solutions for families with children in failing schools.

This week, Dukes will be speaking on a panel at the SXSW EDU conference in Austin titled The March 11 session, which also features Deirdra Reed of The New Teachers Project, Marilyn Rhames of Teachers Who Pray and Ashley Virden of The Mind Trust, is sponsored by EdChoice.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

社区黑料: So, we know that this work is very personal for you. You mentioned that you have 10 kids who attend Atlanta public schools. So can you tell us a little bit about what sparked your interest in parent advocacy and what ultimately compelled you to start Atlanta Thrive?

Dukes: I’ve always been a mother that has volunteered in schools. My oldest daughter is 17 years old, and I鈥檝e volunteered at her elementary school since she was in first grade. What sparked my advocacy work is when the turnaround strategy happened. The parents at Thomasville Heights Elementary School were initially pleased with the school culture and the staff, but we never knew the school was actually graded and we eventually found out that Thomasville Heights Elementary School was categorized as a failing school. One day, I came to the school only to find out that all of the teachers had staged a walkout and I didn’t understand why, and then that’s when I began to learn and dig into what was actually happening on a local and state level.

After I began to ask questions and engage in these policy issues, I became a target for the big unions. I specifically remember when I was targeted by a …. [union employee] who tried to use me to work with him by also mentioning that the mega-churches would also offer their support, all so he could use me to say the things that he wanted to say. I eventually told him that I couldn鈥檛 do it because I’m not dishonest and I’m going to always represent my families and my parents with integrity. So, I separated myself from their efforts, and I eventually went to speak at a board meeting alone. I spoke on behalf of my children, saying that it’s not fair that children growing up in low-income communities are still in failing schools all while parents aren’t informed. Furthermore, the district wasn鈥檛 willing to work with parents and families to help them pick and choose what鈥檚 best for their children. So, what ultimately got me involved in leading the work for Atlanta Thrive was the turnaround strategy and parents not understanding what’s going on in a system that constantly intimidates them or talks over their heads.

How do you engage and empower parents to get involved in education advocacy efforts not only in your local community but also across the country? 

Monday through Friday, I go door to door in the lowest-performing neighborhoods in Atlanta, and we are currently targeting the 12 schools that are on the state takeover list. I make a significant effort to meet parents in their comfort zone and hear their stories to figure out how we can help and address their concerns with the hopes of eventually drawing them into a larger movement of parents who are willing to stand together to say, 鈥淚’ll fight for your child and you will fight for mine.鈥� We also offer a five-week fellowship, where parents come and learn about the history of APS along with the current campaigns that we’re running. The fellows learn how to go out into the community, organize and mobilize, and they also learn how to read data and to tell their personal stories. 鈥� We also bring the fellows together once a month and we have conversations that we like to call Straight Talk. This month鈥檚 Straight Talk will consist of us convening parents to watch the movie Miss Virginia and getting their overall perspectives around the movie with the hopes of getting everyone to share out their next steps of how they plan to move forward.

Additionally, I’ve knocked on over 10,000 doors 鈥� and counting 鈥� and I’ve helped 45 of our parents graduate from our fellowship program. The goal is to have 100 parents graduate from our fellowship program by the end of the year.

Can you talk about some of the challenges and lessons learned throughout your work so far?

One of the most challenging aspects of this work that actually breaks my heart the most is that schools are not open to working with parents. Parents are the experts when it comes to our children. Parents are the only people that don’t reap any benefits by sending their children to these failing schools. The other challenging piece that also breaks my heart is that parents don’t know much about how to navigate the education systems. Parents don’t know schools have grades; parents don’t know that our schools are failing. Parents often believe that because their kids come home with A’s and B’s on their report card, that means that their kids are excelling in school, which we know not to be true.

So this is where I found an opportunity to go out into the community every day to talk to parents. If I just get one or two parents that are receptive to what I have to say or express interest in participating in my organization鈥檚 fellowship program, it makes my heart smile. In the instance that parents are going through things or they鈥檙e just too busy to attend an event we鈥檙e hosting, I completely empathize because I am a mother with 10 kids, so when those things happen, I just tell them to keep my number on file and let them know that they can reach out to me about things related to their children鈥檚 education or even unrelated items, such as self care, etc. I really appreciate it when parents reach out to me just to have a conversation because I really believe we have to be a friend before we need a friend. And I learned that from the mother of our movement, Ms. Sarah Carpenter. We cannot expect parents to show up until we invest in parents, and I鈥檝e realized that this work is about building relationships. This is something that we can teach the schools, administration staff and even the school board. We can also teach them how to deepen relationships with the hopes of having communities and schools that want to work in tandem to support the whole child.

If you had the power to change one thing, one thing about your school district, what would it be?

I would change the current composure of the school board by replacing it with parents who are willing and have the mindset or the learning curve to actually do the work. The board is responsible for decision-making and making things happen. Therefore, parents who have children in struggling schools similar to many other parents in the district won鈥檛 be compelled to make decisions based on politics or what their next move will be. Instead, they will make decisions on what’s best for their children because they would presumably also have children in the district. Also, a lot of times, they try to pit parents against the teachers or our neighborhoods against other neighborhoods, but that’s not the fight we should be fighting. The fight we should all be fighting should be against the system because the system is broken. A lot of us accept the status quo, and until we stop doing so, it won鈥檛 ever stop.

Can you talk to us a little bit about your organization’s plans? What’s most important to you this year? Over the next five years? 

Right now, one of our priorities is to educate at least 100 parents this year by having them go through our fellowship program and to have at least 50 powerful parents by the end of each year [a 鈥減owerful parent鈥� is a parent who attends four or more events within six months]. Ideally, the powerful parent advocates will keep on consistently attending events afterwards and eventually influence the board to vote to change policies based on black and brown kids to make sure that the equity is in everything that the board decides upon. We鈥檙e also hoping to influence the decision-making around the next superintendent appointment because that person will ultimately determine what else can happen in the future.

On Tuesday, March 3, APS is holding a school board meeting to vote on a five-year plan, which is something Atlanta Thrive has been rallying behind, and I will be speaking in favor of implementing the plan. For the next year or two, we plan on holding the board accountable to implementing the measurements and the other items they voted on in this plan. (Dukes testified before the APS school board on March 3, advocating for increased accountability metrics for black and brown students in the district鈥檚 five-year plan.)

What are your thoughts regarding parent activism gaining more traction on the national stage, such as the creation of Powerful Parent Network, and do you believe it may be at a tipping point in terms of political influence? 

This is really important because we can’t just fight on the school, local or state level. The overall state of literacy in our country and the fact that many black and brown kids are not reading on grade level is a serious national problem. The presidential candidates have been discussing their latest education plans for our kids, and we have to make sure that whoever gets elected has a great plan that will ensure our kids aren’t locked in these failing schools.

As a parent activist, I think parents can help influence the presidential election process. For example, a lot of people, including myself, initially really liked EIizabeth Warren鈥檚 campaign and believed she had a lot to offer. However, after some of the parent activists and myself sat down with Warren at Clark Atlanta University to discuss her education plan, we realized she was no longer the highlight of this election season because her plan didn鈥檛 provide sufficient solutions for families with children in failing schools. Our only opportunity shouldn鈥檛 have to be to stay in a neighborhood school. Now, if that ended up being our only option, then we would need to know what the candidate鈥檚 plans are to fix our failing neighborhood schools. For example, among the 88 functioning schools in APS, 54 schools have received a D or F, and that’s a serious problem.

We believe that families living in poverty or parents with kids in failing schools should have the opportunity to have a choice on where they would prefer to send their kids to school. As long as we’re exposing each candidate鈥檚 educational plans and talking to as many parents as possible, we鈥檒l have an opportunity to influence the vote. A lot of people often vote because they think the candidate is a good person, but I think we should be talking more about the candidate鈥檚 education plans because that鈥檚 the key for anybody to be successful, and everyone in the world will be impacted by the educational plan, whether it may be your children, your grandchildren, another member of your family or even your neighbor.

As we know, parenting alone can be incredibly taxing and demanding, and so can this work. How do you find time to take care of yourself?

Self-care is really hard for me primarily because Atlanta Thrive is so new and I’m building a team. But self-care for me right now means getting up around 4:30 a.m. to meditate and getting in bed at least by 9:30 p.m. to have an hour of silence to think, take my medication for my blood pressure, etc. I also make sure I’m drinking water and exercising. These are the small and necessary things that I do for self-care right now.

When you鈥檙e a parent聽thinking聽about what鈥檚 best for your child, I can only imagine the fear and anger one must have聽when聽watching the conversation happening between the Atlanta Board of Education and the current聽superintendent. Negative comments in the media by the superintendent , accompanied by negative mail being sent to parents attacking board members, only reminds parents that the Atlanta Public Schools may be losing focus on our children鈥檚 future.

As this dust settles, what you should realize more than ever before is that聽it鈥檚聽ultimately聽up to you to navigate your child鈥檚 educational future. Our children need a strong leader for our growing and diverse city and public school system. But with that decision being completely out of your hands, you must focus on the things聽that聽you can control. We believe this work includes inspiring parent engagement, empowering community leaders, activating praying pastors, and聽supporting capable and committed聽teachers. With聽or without a superintendent, these critical stakeholders must聽become and remain聽engaged聽in the process.

If you believe this level of stakeholder synergy and engagement聽is critical for our children鈥檚 educational future, then you should聽now聽have a clear understanding of the work of (BOOK). BOOK is an African-American-led organization founded in 2016 that is聽unapologetically focused聽on聽schools and communities聽serving African-American children. Our goal is simple, and that is聽to help聽build聽and support聽a powerful聽and connective聽ecosystem focused on supporting high-performing schools and the communities they serve. After only five years, we are once again plunging headfirst聽into a search for a new superintendent. As聽disruptive and political as the pursuit of a new leader can become, we must remain focused on聽educating Atlanta鈥檚 children. A strong superintendent is but 鈥渙ne cog in the wheel鈥� that must be highly functional for Atlanta to reach its highest heights.

In these uncertain times,聽it should be clearer than ever that we must look beyond the walls of the聽historical constructs聽of our dated public educational models, and look at new concepts, models and approaches to聽educate聽our children. The ability of parents to navigate their聽children鈥檚聽educational future must now be supported聽by caring stakeholders like BOOK, who聽make this goal their top priority.

BOOK was founded and is operated by African Americans for African-American children and families. The need to create and uplift a new voice to 鈥淓ducate, Empower and Execute鈥� was long overdue in metro Atlanta. In partnership with parents, community members, pastors and business leaders, BOOK has created programming designed to listen to dialogue, gain knowledge, share resources and create quality engagements. As educational advocates, we plan to continue to build collaborative relationships through our programming, K-12 School Tours,聽Community Talk events,聽School Pilgrimage trips and Leadership Development opportunities.

More than ever before, it鈥檚 our responsibility, and ultimately part of our children鈥檚 inheritance, to unearth every stone, look under every rock and remove every obstacle to ensure that our children receive a world-class education. What we must now understand is that only through this inheritance can we start to remove the 鈥渟hackles from our feet鈥� and address the systemic injustices that have plagued our race since we arrived in this country back in 1619.

It鈥檚 BOOK鈥檚 firm belief that we must research, understand and take advantage of every educational option available for our children. And if you believe this fact as strongly as we do, then you should also believe that it鈥檚 our responsibility to make sure that African-American children are educated 鈥渂y any means necessary.鈥�

鈥淲e are on the same side.鈥�

That was the resounding takeaway from Atlanta charter school founder Gavin Samms Friday night, despite an impassioned discussion on school choice that shook a Morehouse College auditorium and brought several attendees to their feet.

Approximately 300 families and community advocates attended 鈥淚s School Choice the Black Choice?鈥濃�� an education town hall led by broadcast journalist Roland Martin at the historically black college in Atlanta. The event was the second in a 10-city tour hosted by Martin and 社区黑料. The gatherings seek to engage black families and stakeholders on issues of educational equity, student achievement, and parent involvement. (You can聽replay the full livestream from Atlanta; we’ve also rounded up the聽most notable reactions from the event.) The inaugural event聽was held in Indianapolis in December.聽

And while the fiery debate may have offered the contentious narrative that the black community is battling itself on school choice, Samms said it was quite the opposite, and that the African-American community must work together to set a specific agenda for their children.

鈥淲e do need to measure what our kids know, but when the score itself becomes the thing, we will do whatever it takes to get the score,鈥� said Samms, whose operates two, separate girls- and boys-only schools. 聽鈥淎nd while we do that, the rest of the world has moved on. We have to think about what we really want for our kids. By the time we get better at testing, everyone else would鈥檝e been better at languages, at thinking, and everything else. We need an agenda that determines what we teach our kids separate from other communities because there is a different need.”

This is an issue that is too important for town hall attendees to walk away as adversaries, said Curtis Valentine, deputy director for the Progressive Policy Institute鈥檚 Reinventing America鈥檚 Schools project.

Also on the panel were Atlanta Thrive parent organizer Aretta Baldon, EdConnect CEO Danielle LeSure, educator and blogger Jason Allen, and Democratic Georgia state Rep. Valencia Stovall.

Although charter system enrollment in Georgia fell by 1.3 percent between the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years, it has grown by more than 2,000 percent over the past decade. And state lawmakers last spring聽.

Georgia鈥檚 charter landscape earned another window of growth opportunity in 2012, when voters gave a state-level agency 鈥� the State Charter Schools Commission 鈥� the power to authorize schools that don鈥檛 make the cut at the district level. In 2015, Atlanta by the Fordham Institute. And Atlanta Public Schools last year narrowly gave KIPP, the city鈥檚 largest charter school operator, the green light .

鈥淲hen elephants fight, the grass suffers. These children are waiting for us to get our stuff together. They can鈥檛 wait,鈥� said Valentine, himself a graduate of Morehouse and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. 鈥淲e have to leave here with the determination to fight for them together.鈥�

. Despite their enrollment majority, black students performed poorly on the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress compared to their white peers, who comprise only 15 percent of the district鈥檚 student population. White APS students outscored black and Hispanic students by about 50 points on the exam, also known as the Nation鈥檚 Report Card 鈥� marking a greater racial achievement gap than any urban school district in the U.S. other than Washington, D.C.鈥檚.

鈥淐learly, APS is doing something well鈥� with white students, Dana Rickman, director of policy and research for the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education,聽. 鈥淏ut it doesn鈥檛 translate across race and ethnicity, and that鈥檚 alarming.鈥�

That鈥檚 where school choice advocates are hoping charter and non-traditional school options can fit in 鈥� to offer alternative methods of education for black students where the 20th century model isn鈥檛 working. And a key piece of that is to push for more black educators and policy leaders, Samms said.

鈥淣obody does what we do to compete and hurt the community,鈥� Samms said. 鈥淚 have sacrificed time, energy, and income to work with my community鈥檚 kids. I have kids in the fifth grade who cannot read and came to me that way. We have tested eight kids in the last four months for special ed because somebody missed that. These babies can鈥檛 function 鈥� We do this because we believe in our community and our kids that look like me that came from the neighborhood.鈥�

It鈥檚 also important for black families to know the black leaders are educating their children according to their needs and 鈥渋n a way that works for us,鈥� LeSure said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not about people and foundations setting the agenda for us. It鈥檚 about parents,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here are people who get paid to sit and think about what to do to us 鈥斅爊ot what to do with us.鈥�

Atlanta鈥檚 charter system also mirrors the greater public student population by overwhelmingly serving black students and children from low-income families. More than three-quarters of Atlanta鈥檚 charter school students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and black students , according to data from the Georgia Department of Education. Across the state as a whole, 60 percent of charter school students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and black students make up a much smaller share of the charter school population at 38 percent.

In 2015,聽, compared with just 6 percent of white children and 29 percent of Asians, according to a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

But 68 percent of school board members in America don鈥檛 have children in the district that they represent, Valentine said. And with the advancements made in recent years across sectors and globally, the competition for jobs is no longer just with those at home, but with those around the world.

鈥淎nd if you are not moving at a speed that is comparable or faster, and you wonder what happened? Because we were moving too slow and we were too busy thinking about how adults felt about themselves and not about the kids, who we knew were going to be tomorrow鈥檚 employers and employees,鈥� Valentine said. 鈥淲e have to have that conversation where we鈥檙e talking about, let鈥檚 put leadership and people who are going to have to deal with this 鈥斅爊ot just at school board meetings, not just at city council meetings, not just at state legislative meetings, but you have to come home with it. You鈥檝e got to wake up with it in the morning and say, 鈥楢re you going to educate my baby the way I want her educated? Because if you鈥檙e not, then I鈥檓 going to have to make some changes.鈥欌��

National partners for the event include the American Federation for Children, EdChoice, ExcelinEd, J. Hood & Associates, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Progressive Policy Institute, UNCF, and the Walton Family Foundation.

Disclosure: The Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to 社区黑料.