成人抖阴

College Park, Georgia

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�

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