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PITTSBURGH (AP) — The incoming superintendent of the Pittsburgh Public Schools is defending his resume after two newspapers cited records and education officials in reporting that he allegedly exaggerated his claims of turning around two troubled Florida schools. Anthony Hamlet, 43, was hired by the school board last month and begins his new $210,000-a-year job July 1. Hamlet said on his resume that two Palm Beach County, Florida schools improved their state ratings from "F'' to "C'' when he worked at each as principal. But the newspapers contend one school didn't improve at all under Florida's ratings system and the other improved only from a "D'' to a "C." Hamlet acknowledged at a Tuesday news conference that his resume was incorrect with regard to John F. Kennedy Middle School, where he was principal from May 2009 to August 2011. "I made an error in that JFK was not an F, but a D. Went from D to a C," Hamlet said. But he defended his account that Palm Beach Lakes High School improved while he was principal there from 2011 until 2014. Hamlet said Florida education officials rate schools based on students' academic performance on standardized tests and other factors, including graduation rates, college readiness and participation in advanced placement courses. He acknowledged the high school's overall rating remained a "C'' during his tenure, but said its academic performance rose from an "F'' to a "C," calling that "the things that really matter." Cheryl Etters, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education, said there isn't a separate scale for grading schools on standardized tests. Florida state records show the school's test scores did improve, but Etters said the school's performance in other categories declined enough during the same period to offset the academic gains. The teachers' union and school board president Regina Holley defended hiring Hamlet and said his record of turning around Florida schools is needed to address similar challenges in Pittsburgh. Holley said the board discussed media reports about the resume with Hamlet, and she called the resume issue a "closed matter." "He had to tell us what numbers he used," Holley said, adding that Pittsburgh school data experts also reviewed Hamlet's claims. "The numbers that we saw showed improvement ... for a very challenged population," she said.

New Pittsburgh schools superintendent defends resume claims