NEWS & RESOURCES

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION REPORT-MAY 2011

By: Deborah White | May 12, 2011, 2:51 pm

The May 11th State Board of Education Meeting began at 8 o’clock with an Executive Session followed at 9:15 with the three committee meetings, budget, rules, and charter. After the conclusion of the three committee meeting, the Operations Committee met. Following the Operations Committee Meeting, a second Executive Session was held and the Public Hearing began at 1 o’clock. Chairman Barrs asked for public comments; there were no comments.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION REPORT-APRIL 2011

By: Deborah White | April 14, 2011, 2:00 pm

Actions and Changes
By
Deborah White

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING-REPORT MARCH 2011

By: Deborah White | March 14, 2011, 2:26 pm

The typical two-day State Board of Education meeting was consolidated into one day, Wednesday, March 9, 2011. This change was to permit time for a board planning retreat scheduled for Wednesday evening and Thursday.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING REPORT- FEBRUARY 2011

By: Stuart Bennett | February 17, 2011, 12:46 pm

The second meeting of the Georgia State Board of Education for 2011 was February 9th and 10th in its usual two day format. This month there were discussions about math, CRCT test erasures, the new Longitudinal Delivery System (LDS) and more discussions about math. The Rules, Charter and Budget Committees met and moved several actions forward for discussions in the Committee of the Whole on Wednesday with the state board taking official action on Thursday morning.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING REPORT- JANUARY 2011

By: Stuart Bennett | January 21, 2011, 3:10 pm

The January meeting of the Georgia State Board of Education finally happened today after a one week Ice delay. Originally scheduled for January 13th, the first meeting for newly sworn in State Superintendent John Barge was a long, single day affair. The board’s agenda in and by itself was uneventful; it was the policy discussion surrounding possible changes to Georgia’s controversial math program that proved to be the most noteworthy discussion of the day. Dr. Barge also introduced the new members of his leadership team: Joel Thornton, Chief of Staff; Mike Buck, Chief Academic Officer; Avis King Deputy Superintendent for School Improvement; Sylvia Hooker, Deputy Superintendent for Turnaround Schools and Dan Carter, Deputy Superintendent for external Affairs and Policy. Dr. Martha Reichrath, will remain in place as deputy for Curriculum and Instruction and Assessment. We are honored that Dr. Reichrath also serves as the DOE representative on the GAEL board of Directors.

VACANCY NOTICE- GEORGIA ASSOCIATION OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERS

By: Robin Edwards | November 22, 2010, 4:50 pm

The Georgia Association of Educational Leaders (GAEL), Flowery Branch, Georgia, is seeking an executive director. GAEL is a professional membership organization providing a wide variety of services to the state’s educational leaders both directly and thorough six Affiliates: Georgia Association of Curriculum and Instructional Leaders, Georgia Association of Elementary School Principals, Georgia Association of Middle School Principals, Georgia Association of Secondary School Principals, Georgia Council of Administrators of Special Education, and Georgia School Superintendents Association. Additional information about GAEL is available at www.gael.org .

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING REPORT- NOVEMBER 2010

By: Jim Puckett | November 12, 2010, 3:54 pm

In a change from the usual two-day meeting schedule, this month the State Board of Education combined its work session and formal meeting days into a one-day format. The meeting was held in Atlanta.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING REPORT- OCTOBER 2010

By: Jim Puckett | October 15, 2010, 1:40 pm

The State Board of Education met in Atlanta on Wednesday, October 13 for committee meeting work sessions and on Thursday, October 14 for its regularly scheduled monthly meeting.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING REPORT- SEPTEMBER 2010

By: Stuart Bennett and Deborah White | September 10, 2010, 5:31 pm

What a difference one month makes, the September meeting of the Georgia State Board of Education was as uneventful as the August meeting was event filled! No appearances by the Governor, or press conferences to address cheating allegations; just a very light agenda with very few actions taken by the state board. Their usual meeting format was in place with Committee meetings held Wednesday morning; followed by the Committee of the Whole or COW as we call it and the official meeting taking place on Thursday, so, let’s get this party started. The Rules committee had a very light agenda with only six items for action this month. The majority of this committee’s discussion was centered on the board’s initiating of State Board of Education Rule 160-5-1-.36 LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD GOVERNANCE a policy designed to implement Senate Bill 84 passed during the past legislative session.

ADDENDUM TO AUGUST STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION REPORT

By: Jim Puckett | August 20, 2010, 11:54 am

In a rare move, Governor Sonny Perdue appeared before the State Board of Education Wednesday to outline his plan for launching a special investigation into allegations of testing irregularities in the Atlanta City and Dougherty County School Systems.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING REPORT- AUGUST 2010

By: Stuart Bennett | August 20, 2010, 11:48 am

The August meeting of the Georgia State Board of Education reached historic proportions this month with an appearance from Governor Perdue at the Wednesday work session. Perdue made this unprecedented appearance; to support a presentation on the recent CRCT cheating investigations conducted in the Atlanta Public and Dougherty County School Systems by Kathleen Mathers, Executive Director of his office of Student Achievement; to voice his displeasure with the final recommendations stemming from these investigations that he "found to be incomplete and "woefully inadequate in scope and depth”; and to announce his appointment of a special investigator to conduct an in-depth investigation in the two systems. This special investigator will have subpoena power, meaning he or she will be able to compel witnesses to testify. Under state law, an investigator can refer cases to local district attorneys or to the state Attorney General’s Office for prosecution. State law prohibits falsifying state documents but there is no law specifically against cheating on tests. The Governor closed his presentation by stating that this investigation will begin “as soon as possible.” (For additional information please read the Interim State Board Report filed for GSBA by Dr. Jim Pucket that follows this report.)

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING REPORT- JULY 2010

By: Jim Puckett | July 9, 2010, 4:01 am

The regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the State Board of Education was held in Atlanta on July 7 and 8. Newly appointed interim State Superintendent of Schools Brad Bryant was welcomed to his first meeting in the new role.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING REPORT- JUNE 2010

By: Stuart Bennett | June 11, 2010, 6:46 pm

The June meeting of the Georgia State Board of Education has proven to be a sweet “swan song” for outgoing Superintendent Kathy Cox; as she presented good news on the spring administration of the CRCT. Student performance is rising and the achievement gap is closing in the majority of grades and content areas on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT). “These results provide further evidence that our teachers are doing a great job implementing the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) and they are to be commended for their hard work," Superintendent Cox said. "It also shows that when you raise expectations, Georgia students will rise up and meet that higher bar." To see all of the results read The DOE press release CRCT Results Show Progress to get the preliminary analysis of this year’s scores.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING REPORT- MAY 2010

By: Stuart Bennett | May 14, 2010, 12:56 pm

The May meeting of the Georgia State Board of Education returned to its customary format this month with the board committees and the committee of the whole on Wednesday and the board meeting on Thursday. This month, most of the action items of interest to our readers, came out of the Rules committee as they addressed several significant rules this month as well as additional system waivers.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING REPORT- APRIL 2010

By: Stuart Bennett | April 14, 2010, 7:02 pm

This month the Georgia State Board of Education departed from their usual format of a two day meeting; as this month’s meeting fell right in the middle of spring break for most systems, and they had a light agenda. Instead they voted to amend their own policy and conduct their business in a single day, albeit a long one. With the official meeting happening later that afternoon. The three standing committees; Budget, Rules and Charter met early Wednesday morning and deliberated their agendas recommending the majority of the items forward for consent at the committee of the whole meeting. The Budget committee voted to amend the contract with IBM (Cognos) to extend to September 30, 2010 and at no cost for the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) reporting requirements; to amend the contract with Covendis Technologies to increase the cost by $1,200,000.00 for a new total contract of $7,012,838.00 for Temporary IT staffing; to award a grant to a maximum of ten (10) LEAs for $645,828.00 in Federal Funds for engaging Advanced Placement (AP) students through handheld computing; to award a grant to selected Local Education Agencies (LEAs) for $1,492,973.00 in State Funds for special education residential and reintegration services to students in private facilities placed by the LEA and to distribute carryover Reading First grant funds to twenty-eight LEA’s for a cost of $3,677,129.43 in Federal Funds.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING REPORT- MARCH 2010

By: Stuart Bennett | March 12, 2010, 5:17 pm

The March Meeting of the Georgia Board of education was relatively quiet compared to last month’s bit of excitement over testing erasures, however, the board did have a follow up presentation form the Governor’s office of Student Achievement and we will discuss that later in this report. First, let’s take a look at the work of the board committees. The Rules committee heard presentations on several rule revisions that began with two amendments to the State-funded k-8 Subjects and 9-12 Courses for Students Entering Ninth Grade Prior to 2008(Rule 160-4-2-.03) and to State-Funded k-8 Subjects and 9-12 Courses for Students Entering Ninth Grade in 2008 and Subsequent Years(Rule 160-4-2-.03). Pam Smith Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the Department informed the board members that these rules included 782 state funded courses that include: 449 CTAE, 156 Science, 69 English Language Arts, 13 math, 16 Social Studies, and 19 Foreign Language courses. The rules committee also recommended revisions to the entire series of the State Board of Education Rules 160-4-7-.03 Child Find, 160-4-7-.04 Evaluations and Reevaluations, 160-4-7-.05 Eligibility Determination and Categories of Eligibility of Eligibility, 160-4-7-.07 Least Restrictive Environment, 160-4-7-.09 Procedural Safeguards, 160-4-7-.12 Dispute Resolution, 160-4-7-.18 Grants for Services, and 160-4-7-.19 Services for Agency Placed Students. These revisions were required as the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) issued new federal regulations to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Georgia must revise their rules to mirror these federal regulations by May, 2010. Track the changes to these rules at this link by clicking on Item #3 under the rules committee agenda. These rule revisions were adopted by the board in Thursday’s meeting.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING REPORT- FEBRUARY 2010

By: Stuart Bennett | February 12, 2010, 4:12 pm

The February meeting of the Georgia State Board of Education had a very light but somewhat controversial agenda as a much anticipated decision was brought forward by the board’s charter committee. Before we get to that meeting, let’s review the work of the rules and the budget committees. In the Rules Committee, while there were no action items with regard to rules this month, there were quite a few waivers for local school systems. The following waivers were moved to the consent agenda: waivers to the scheduling for instruction (160-4-8-1.20) and alternative school (160-4-2-1.60 rule for Pelham City Schools; class size (160-5-1.08) waivers for nine additional schools systems, bringing the grand total to 90 systems that have been granted these waivers by the board; waiver to the Direct Instruction (65%) (160-5-1.29) for seven districts (no discussion); a waiver for the English Language Learners program (160-4-5.02) requirements for Murray and Paulding Counties; additional waivers for the state board rule governing Guidance Counselors ( 160-4-8.05) for Murray and Spaulding Counties; A system waiver was granted for Instructional Extension Requirements (160-4-2.140) for six districts; finally, a waiver to the Personnel Required (160-5-1-220 rule for McIntosh County to allow them to eliminate the curriculum director’s position form the central office staff.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING REPORT- JANUARY 2010

By: Stuart Bennett | January 15, 2010, 10:27 am

After taking a break in December, for their annual planning retreat, the Georgia State Board of Education returned to its regular format this month with a relatively light agenda. The state board rules, charter and budget committees met bright and early Wednesday morning to deliberate. The board Rules committee voted to adopt a new rule governing the special education scholarships (vouchers) mandated by SB 10 a few years ago. In her report, policy specialist Carmen Fernandez reported that there are currently 2,100 students receiving these special needs scholarships in Georgia. This rule and corresponding guidelines are being put in place to govern the current process with little change. The committee also voted to initiate their annual adoption of the state funded courses with Rule 160-4-2-.03 STATE-FUNDED K-8 SUBJECTS AND 9-12 COURSES FOR STUDENTS ENTERING NINTH GRADE PRIOR TO 2008 for the 2010-2011 school years and Rule 160-4-2-.20 STATE-FUNDED K-8 SUBJECTS AND 9-12 COURSES FOR STUDENTS ENTERING NINTH GRADE IN 2008 AND SUBSEQUENT YEARS for the 2010-2011. Both of these rules are reviewed and revised annually based on school district recommendations for additions and the implementation of the Georgia Performance Standards. The department recommends that course or subject submission deadline be June 1 each year so that districts plan earlier for their next school year's course offerings. In other policy actions, the board modified Rule 160-4-2-.34 Dual Enrollment. The amendments to this rule created a new grade conversion chart to bring this rule in line with last year’s “Move on When Ready Act” (HB149). The recommended credit conversions are: