On february 20th 2009 Beverly Hall, then in her ninth year of heading Atlanta's public schools, was named National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators (aasa). The head of aasa praised the "significant gains in student achievement" she had overseen-and indeed Atlanta's schoolchildren made sizeable gains on the standardised tests used to determine yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. At Parks Middle School, for instance, the share of 13-year-olds who passed the test's maths section rose from 24% to 86%, and the share of those who "exceeded expectations" rose from 1% to 46%-both in a single year.
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