Fred A. Toomer Elementary School

"Toomer Elementary is a sub-performing school with a ghetto mentality. The expectations and commitment levels are low. Instead of lamenting about how their students go to an “inner city school”, get free lunch, live in poverty and are raised by single parents, etc, etc..., Toomer teachers ought to start raising the bar and raising expectations. Toomer is the lowest performing school in the cluster and all of the cluster schools are Title 1, so Title 1 status cannot be used as an excuse. The standardized test scores confirm it. Drew Charter, Burgess-Peterson, even Whitefoord all score higher than Toomer."

"Considering where this school has come from it now represents a successful racially and economically diverse public school (a rarity in Atlanta)! The parental and community involvement is energizing and the school now has a principal and teachers that are committed to making it one of the best elementary schools in the area (it already outscores in several areas its wealthier, more established neighbors!)"

"It’s going to take all summer to undo the bad habits my 1st grader picked up at Toomer Elementary. Toomer teachers need extra training on how to manage disruptive personalities and students from diverse environments. They really don’t have a handle on it and it lowers the classroom quality level. My child’s teacher did not have control of the class. I was told stories about how the kids would throw things, talk back and use crass language. I could see it all start to unravel in my child’s behavior and speech, when he started bringing home all the negative things he picked up during the school day. I cringe when I think about the type of character my child could become if he stayed at Toomer. We’re leaving."

"Considering where this school has come from it now represents a successful racially and economically diverse public school (a rarity in Atlanta)! The parental and community involvement is energizing and the school now has a principal and teachers that are committed to making it one of the best elementary schools in the area (it already outscores in several areas its wealthier, more established neighbors!)"

"It’s going to take all summer to undo the bad habits my 1st grader picked up at Toomer Elementary. Toomer teachers need extra training on how to manage disruptive personalities and students from diverse environments. They really don’t have a handle on it and it lowers the classroom quality level. My child’s teacher did not have control of the class. I was told stories about how the kids would throw things, talk back and use crass language. I could see it all start to unravel in my child’s behavior and speech, when he started bringing home all the negative things he picked up during the school day. I cringe when I think about the type of character my child could become if he stayed at Toomer. We’re leaving."

"Toomer Elementary is a sub-performing school with a ghetto mentality. The expectations and commitment levels are low. Instead of lamenting about how their students go to an “inner city school”, get free lunch, live in poverty and are raised by single parents, etc, etc..., Toomer teachers ought to start raising the bar and raising expectations. Toomer is the lowest performing school in the cluster and all of the cluster schools are Title 1, so Title 1 status cannot be used as an excuse. The standardized test scores confirm it. Drew Charter, Burgess-Peterson, even Whitefoord all score higher than Toomer."