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Legislators seek thoughtful solutions from teachers on teaching of reading, Move On When Read (MOWR), Testing, and Pay for Performance.

July 1, 2016, brings a most significant change to local school systems as a consequence of SB 364.  Local systems must create a plan as to how they plan to evaluate and assess teachers and students.  SLOs as we know them are now by local adoption.  SB 364 calls for teachers to do at least one summative assessment of students in their classes but that summative assessment may be the result of a series of formative assessments.

The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement rolled out its STAR rating system last week to the consternation of many school systems and schools.

This past week State Superintendent Richard Woods took a bold stand when he told system superintendents that they do not have to comply with the USDOE’s Dear Colleague letter on bathroom equity and the resolution of the matter is up to the local board.

The highly emotional and stressful 2016 version of the Georgia General Assembly has ended and Governor Nathan Deal has taken action on all of the bills adopted in 2016.

By Friday of this week Governor Deal was supposed to announce his decision on several key pieces of legislation, particularly SB 364.

We have learned today that the Governor’s Office has not scheduled a signing ceremony for SB 364.  That leaves two options for SB 364, the Governor can allow it to become law without signing it or he can veto it.   PLEASE take time to contact the Governor’s Office and ask him not to veto SB 364.

It is worth reporting when state government goes out of its way to insure that everyone’s opinion is heard on an issue. 

After midnight last evening one of the most emotion filled sessions of the Georgia General Assembly came to a fluttering end.   Two of the major emotional issues were religious freedom and campus gun carry. Religious freedom as HB 757 was amended and passed both House and Senate and now rests with the Governor.

The 2016 Georgia General Assembly is scheduled to have its last legislative day tomorrow, March 24.  There are many bills and issues left to be resolved and you will get the Sine Die Report on Friday.