SB 364 was overwhelmingly passed by the House on Tuesday and transmitted to the Senate where they are expected to accept the changes that have been made. The passage of the bill is a major positive step for educators in Georgia and is due in large part to the courage and determination of Sen. Lindsey Tippins. The final bill which was a compromise between Senate and House versions has the following elements:
- Reduces Student Growth to 30% for TKES.
- Reduces Student Growth to 40% for LKES.
- Requires that a student attend 90% of the classes to be included in the Student Growth measure.
- Reduces to 2 the required observation for tenured teachers with proficient or exemplary ratings the previous year.
- Makes SLOs a local adoption.
- Requires one summative annual assessment for all students which may be made of several formative assessments.
- Places considerable emphasis on literacy and math skills for K-5 by requiring annual diagnostic and/or summative evaluations for K-5.
- Mandates a mid-year and end of year evaluation conference for all teachers and prohibits systems from imposing quotas on evaluation results.
- Encourages the SBOE and the GADOE to place state exams a near the end of the semester/year as possible.