Atlanta – The $1M Croan Middle School Graduate Generation Program is At The Heart of Emory University and the Atlanta Public School’s 2012 Redistricting Debate

In Atlanta many neighborhoods are engaged in debates with the Atlanta Public School system this spring about redistricting, school closing and forced busing starting the 2012-2013 school year. The neighborhood schools cited for closing are: Parks Middle School, Capitol View Elementary School, Thomasville Heights Elementary School, Boyd Elementary School, F.L. Stanton Elementary School, White Elementary School, Fain Elementary School, Cook Elementary School, Coan Middle School, East Lake Elementary School, Humphries Elementary School, Kennedy Middle School and Herndon Elementary School.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Earl Lewis, the provost of Emory University has forwarded an official letter and dispatched a university spokesperson to deliberate on the fate a of particular neighborhood school involved in it’s own programming to the tune of one-million dollars now listed by the new Atlanta Public Schools (APS) superintendent, Errol Davis to close its doors.

The school APS is planning to rezone and close is called Croan Middles school — which Emory says serves the neighborhood communities of East Lake, Edgewood, and Kirkwood and has been involved in an innovative program called the Graduation Generation.

Ozzie Harris, Emory’s chief diversity officer has said, “We are not trying to promote any school over the other. This is where we were in the middle of doing our work.” The program has apparently received a sizable financial gift and the Croan Middle School’s Graduate Generation program is also said to have the attention of local and national educators based on its potential to impact drop-out prevention by increasing critical parent involvement, and improving teacher/learner relationships to increase student achievement.

The Atlanta Public Schools like many school districts across the nation is involved in a massive redistricting process a deciding factor for up-and-coming elections and municipal appointments. APS superintendent Davis says, “Croan has space for 900 students, but only has around 300. Furthermore, only 56 percent of the students in the area who should be attending Coan actually go there. A bulk of the remaining 44 percent are in charter schools. Those are facts that you can’t get rid of or ignore,”.

This will be an interesting debate mounting for Mr. Davis atop of many battles he faces following one of the largest systemic teacher-led cheating scandals in the nation exposed by the Governor’s Office last year.