The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Carstarphen delivers final State of the District address
High-energy event touts accomplishments, urges patience, recaps history.
With smoke and spotlights, dancers and a marching band, Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Meria Carstarphen delivered her final State of the District address Thursday.
Carstarphen, hired in 2014, has amped up the annual event into a high-energy theatrical production. With her job winding down and her contract set to expire June 30, Carstarphen emerged from behind a large storybook prop and announced her arrival to an applauding audience.
“Welcome to the 2019 State of the District. My name is Meria Carstarphen, and I’m still the very proud superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools,” she said, to cheers and a few laughs from those who gathered in the gym at the newly renovated Harper-Ar
cher Elementary School. The school board has begun searching for her successor after making a controversial announcement in September that it would not extend her contract.
Carstarphen seized Thursday’s address as an opportunity to recap the district’s history, tout accomplishments during her time as chief and urge patience and persistence as APS works to turn around schools.
The theme? “The Epicof APS.” She started the journey in postCivil War Atlanta in 1872 with the birth of the district and continued to 1924 when Booker T. Washington High School, the state’s first public high school for African-Americans, opened. She referenced the integration of Atlanta schools in 1961. She paused to rip down a banner with an Atlanta Journal-Constitution headline about the massive cheating scandal, symbolizing the district’s efforts to move past that dark chapter.
Most of the address focused on her tenure at APS.
“Five years ago we met at the intersection of our past and the quest of excellence,” she said.
The district has made strides since then, she said. She and other speakers cited graduation rate increases, a bigger pre-kindergarten program, lower principal turnover and a culture that
is now focused on children, not adults.
But Carstarphen repeated a warning she’s voiced often, that the job isn’t finished.
“Research shows that sustainable progress comes in incremental spurts and in waves and you can see gains and drops and bigger gains and then another dip,” she said. “This work is not for the faint of heart.”
She said more work remains to make education more equitable for all APS students, to narrow the large academic gap between white students and students of color.
After the event, advocacy organizations called attention to the racial and socio-economic class inequities that divide the district.
“Despite well-intentioned efforts, too many struggling schools are as challenged today as they were five years ago,” said a news release from the Latino Association for Parents of Public Schools and GeorgiaCAN.
The groups contend there’s been little or no movement in some schools, that charter school performance “varies significantly” and that some of the district’s highest-performing schools have room to enroll more students.
During a news conference after the event, Carstarphen said she’s proud of the gains APS has made but said turning around the district is a “multi-decade journey.”
“It’s a 15-year journey. It took far less time to dismantle progress, so it’s going to take more time to put it back together,” she said. “You have to have time and patience to get through the tough spots.”