History
Before 1900
On November 26, 1869, the Atlanta City Council passed an ordinance establishing the Atlanta Public Schools. On January 31, 1872, the first three grammar schools for white students (Crew Street School, Ivy Street School, Walker Street School) opened, and the existing grammar schools for black students (Summer Hill School and Storr's School) established by the Freedman's Bureau in 1866 and supported by the Northern Missionary Societies, were merged into the holdings of the Atlanta Public Schools.[14] The capacity of each school was 400 students, although the inaugural registration was 1839 students, 639 students over the capacity. In addition, two high schools, divided by sex, were formed for white students, Boys High and Girls High. These initial schools were based on a census of school aged (ages 6–18) children called for by the inaugural Board of Education. That survey reported in October 1870 that there were 3,345 white children (1,540 boys and 1,805 girls) and 3,139 black children (1,421 boys and 1,728 girls) for a total potential student body of 6,484.[15]
the districts for the white grammar schools were divided as follows,
- Crew Street School, The second and third wards, including that portion of the city lying between Whitehall street and the Georgia Railroad
- Ivy Street School, the fourth, fifth, and seventh wards, bounded by the Georgia Railroad and the Western & Atlantic Railroad
- Walker Street School, first and sixth wards, including that portion of the city west of Whitehall street and the Western & Atlantic railroad.[16]
The initial monetary support from the Atlanta City Council was limited. Although a bond had been called for and approved through vote by the residents, there were not yet funds and so the Board of Education had to approach the City Council to cover the purchase of the land, the construction of the buildings, the salaries of the teachers, as well as books to teach from.[17] The first salary budget, dated December 9, 1871, was for twenty-seven teachers, and totaled $21,250. Grade school teachers were paid $450-$800 a year, while principals were paid $1,500 and the superintendent was paid $2,000.[18]
The organization of the schools was a traditional 8-4 arrangement which consisted of 8 years of grammar school for students aged 6 to 14, and 4 years of high school for students aged 14–18.[19] The grades began at eighth for first year students, and students progressed through to the first grade as year eight students of grammar school. The established curriculum for grammar school was, Spelling, Reading, Writing, Geography, Arithmetic (Mental and Written), Natural History, Natural Science, English Grammar, Vocal Music (it was later decided not offer this), Drawing, Composition, History, Elocution.[20] High school curriculum was Orthography, Elocution, Grammar, Physical Geography, Natural Philosophy, Latin, Greek (boys only), Algebra, Geometry, Composition, Rhetoric, English Literature, French or German, Physiology, Chemistry, and a review of grammar school studies.[21]
During 1872 three additional grammar schools for white students (Luckie Street, Decatur Street, and Marietta Street) and an additional grammar school for black students (Markham Street School) were instituted to meet demand. This first year saw 2,842 students served by the schools.[22]
By 1896 there were a total of twenty-two schools, fifteen grammar schools for white students, five grammar schools for black students, and two high schools for white students.[23]
Expansion
On January 1, 1952, thirty-eight schools that began under Fulton County Schools came under the authority of Atlanta Public Schools following the Plan of Improvement annexation executed by Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield. These schools included five segregated high schools: Henry McNeal Turner and Hapeville, which served black students, and Fulton, North Fulton, Northside, Southwest, and West Fulton, which served white students. The primary schools added on this date were Anderson Park, Benton, Blanton, Bolton, Brandon Morris, John Carey, Carter, Cascade, Center Hill, Chattahoochee, Lena H. Cox, Margaret Fain, Mount Vernon, Hunter Hills, Garden Hills, R. L. Hope, E. P. Howell, Humphries, Lakewood Heights, Mayson, New Hope, Perkerson, Philadelphia, E. Rivers, Rockdale, Rock Spring, West Haven, William Scott, South Atlanta, and Thomasville.[24]
Integration
On August 30, 1961, nine students – Thomas Franklin Welch, Madelyn Patricia Nix, Willie Jean Black, Donita Gaines, Arthur Simmons, Lawrence Jefferson, Mary James McMullen, Martha Ann Holmes and Rosalyn Walton – became the first African American students to attend several of APS's all-white high schools.
On September 8, 1961, Time magazine reported:
Last week the moral siege of Atlanta (pop. 487,455) ended in spectacular fashion with the smoothest token school integration ever seen in the Deep South. Into four high schools marched nine Negro students without so much as a white catcall. Teachers were soon reporting "no hostility, no demonstrations, the most normal day we've ever had." In the lunchrooms, white children began introducing themselves to Negro children. At Northside High, a biology class was duly impressed when Donita Gaines, a Negro, was the only student able to define the difference between anatomy and physiology. Said she crisply: "Physiology has to do with functions."
In a 1964 news story, Time would say, "The Atlanta decision was a gentle attempt to accelerate one of the South’s best-publicized plans for achieving integration without revolution."
By May 1961, 300 transfer forms had been given to black students interested in transferring out of their high schools. 132 students actually applied; of those, 10 were chosen and 9 braved the press, onlookers, and insults to integrate Atlanta's all-white high schools.
Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka had established the right of African American students to have equal opportunities in education, but it was not until 1958, when a group of African American parents challenged the segregated school system in federal court, that integration became a tangible reality for students of color in Atlanta.
Adding to the accolades for the students and the city, President Kennedy publicly congratulated residents during an evening address and asked other cities to "look closely at what Atlanta has done and to meet their responsibility... with courage, tolerance and above all, respect for the law."[citation needed]
In 2012, Atlanta Public Schools produced a documentary to honor the 50th anniversary of the district's desegregation efforts.[25] In January 1972, in order to settle several federal discrimination and desegregation lawsuits filed on behalf of minority students, faculty, and employees and reach satisfactory agreement with Atlanta civil rights leaders who had worked over a decade for a peaceful integration plan. Atlanta Public Schools entered into a voluntary agreement called the Compromise Plan with the U.S. Department of Justice along with approval and oversight from the U.S. Department of Education in an attempt to desegregate Atlanta Public Schools. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a majority of Atlanta Northside public schools had either token integration, or none at all. Faculty and staff assignments to schools had remained mostly segregated as well.
The Justice department reviewed the school system plan consisting of partial district busing for the Northside area, Voluntary and "M to M" (Minority to Majority) transfers; Redrawing attendance zones, Closing outdated and underutilized schools, Building new schools, Mandating and implementing equal employment opportunity guidelines for hiring, training, promotion, assignment, staffing, compensation, vendor selection, bidding, contracting, construction, procurement and purchasing. The school system was also converted from a K-7 elementary and 8-12 high school grade system into a middle school 6–8 grade program beginning with the 1973/1974 school year. The curriculum was also updated to have studies more balanced, inclusive, and diverse, with content culturally and historically significant to racial minorities. On April 4th 1973 after final review authorization orders were issued from the Federal Courts clearing the way for the Compromise Plan of 1973 to be immediately implemented bringing full integration to APS.
With strict guidelines, oversight and timeline implementation of the voluntary desegregation plan, the federal courts agreed not to order and enforce system-wide a mandatory busing desegregation program for APS that had been federally enforced in other cities up to that time, most notably Boston and Philadelphia which resulted in widespread anti-busing violence in 1973-74 that Atlanta civil rights leaders desired to avoid. Along with the Compromise program for racial balance, the school system's first African American Superintendent, Dr. Alonzo A. Crim,was Appointed taking leadership of Atlanta Public Schools in August 1973. He remained superintendent until his retirement in 1988.
21st century
The City of Atlanta, in 2017, agreed to annex territory in DeKalb County, including the Centers for Disease Control and Emory University, effective January 1, 2018.[26] In 2016 Emory University made a statement that "Annexation of Emory into the City of Atlanta will not change school districts, since neighboring communities like Druid Hills will still be self-determining regarding annexation."[27] By 2017 the city agreed to include the annexed property in the boundaries of APS, a move decried by the leadership of the DeKalb County School District as it would take taxable property away from that district.[26] In 2017 the number of children living in the annexed territory who attended public schools was nine.[28] The area ultimately went to APS;[26] students in the area will be rezoned to APS effective 2024; they will be zoned to DeKalb schools before then.[29]
In 2023, APS increased its budget to $1.66 billion and its spending-per-student amount to $22,692 which is about double the state and national public school average.[30][31]
