Hope VI Leads To Revitalization Of Atlanta School

Three years ago, Atlanta's Carver High School was one of the worst-performing campuses in Georgia. "Back then, only a third - a third - of Carver's seniors ever earned a high school diploma...But the New Schools at Carver, as the campus is now called, has changed all that."

"By breaking up the traditional campus into five smaller schools - each with its own student body, curriculum, principal and faculty - education officials say they've finally broken down the stubborn pattern of truancy, disrespect and low aspirations. Just one year after the conversion, Carver's graduation rate soared from a paltry 36 percent to a not-too-shabby 61 percent."

The development of the New Schools at Carver was a component of a Hope VI-funded revitalization of the formerly decrepit Carver Homes housing project. Critics of Hope VI (now essentially de-funded by the Bush Administration) often overlook the benefits the program had on the surrounding neighborhoods.

"Nearly two years after the experiment started, Superintendent Beverly Hall is so convinced smaller is better, she's 'transforming' all of the school system's high schools in the next three years using Carver - a campus that once held the demoralizing distinction of having the lowest average SAT scores in the state - as a model."

"By the 2009-10 school year, all of the city's high schools will either be broken up in like fashion or will develop 'small learning communities' where teams of teachers are assigned to a set group of students, similar to a strategy commonly used in middle school."

"Of course, the need to transform all of our nations' high schools is widely recognized. ... We are not adequately preparing young people with the skills that are needed to compete in today's marketplace," Hall said in announcing details of the plan last month. "We have an opportunity in Atlanta to set the sights high for all of our students."

"Next school year, the Office of High School Transformation, a 20-person department created to oversee the initiative, will have a budget of $5 million - up from two staff members and less than $200,000 spent this year. Much of the administrative expense will be covered by a $10.5 million, multi-year grant from the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation."