Georgia Is Leading. Who Will Follow?
In Atlanta, they can smell the accountabaloney and they aren’t afraid to do something about it.
On June 18, 2020, Georgia’s Governor Brian P. Kemp and State School Superintendent Richard Woods of the Georgia Department of Education issued a joint statement announcing it would seek a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education for the suspension of the 2020-21 state assessments and school and district ranking. On March 16th, Georgia had asked for, and was ultimately granted, a similar waiver for the 2019-2020 school year (Florida made a similar announcement the following day.)
In their same June 18th press release, Georgia announced they were also suspending their teacher evaluation system for the 2020-21 school year.
You can read the entire press release here. Here are the highlights (emphasis is ours):
“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, we have urged common sense regarding compliance in Georgia’s public schools, and a focus before anything else on the health, safety, and well-being of students, families, and school staff…
“Given the ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic and the resulting state budget reductions, it would be counterproductive to continue with high-stakes testing for the 2020-2021 school year. In anticipation of a return to in-person instruction this fall, we believe schools’ focus should be on remediation, growth, and the safety of students. Every dollar spent on high-stakes testing would be a dollar taken away from the classroom…
“These efforts are in line with our longstanding shared belief that assessment has a place and a purpose in education, but the current high-stakes testing regime is excessive…
“We are hopeful the federal government will recognize that the upcoming school year will not be ‘business as usual’ and will accept our request for a standardized testing waiver.”
We agree 100%. Current high stakes testing regimes are excessive. Every dollar spent on high stakes testing is a dollar taken away from the classroom. The upcoming school year will not be “business as usual.” Schools should be focused on remediation, growth and the safety of students (and teachers).
It is time for a pause. The USDOE should grant the waiver.
Meanwhile, south of the border, Florida’s Re-open Schools plan cites the “need for progress monitoring and data informed supports,” and that means more testing. The report, also, highlights how Florida plans to expand its testing infrastructure using federal CARES Act funding.
Florida’s Re-open Schools plan calls for, among other things:
- Piloting a new VPK-K progress monitoring system statewide (p98).
- Building the capacity of districts and schools to use screening and progress monitoring data to drive informed teaching in preK-3 by investing in a screening and progress monitoring assessment with LEAs (p102).
- Sourcing a modernized cloud based statewide data collection and student information system “for the purposes of data collection, longitudinal analysis and progress monitoring and also all state and federal funding accountability and reporting requirements” (p102).
- Proceeding with the implementation of the newly created B.E.S.T. Standards and their accompanying assessments, including:
- establishing baseline scores on the SAT or ACT during the 2020-2021 academic year, in anticipation of using those exams for accountability purposes in the future (p 114).
- incentivizing districts to implement the new Civic Literacy test p 115).
In other words, Florida will expand its testing and data collection, whether the data collected is useful, or not, during a global health and economic crisis. There was no mention in Florida’s Re-open Schools plan of pausing the state accountability system, the ranking of schools and districts based on test scores or the use of test scores in teacher evaluations.
Remember, as Georgia highlighted, every dollar spent on such testing is a dollar taken away from the classroom
While Florida focuses on “Return on Investment” (page 91) – and by that they mean “higher test scores for less money” – Georgia is emerging as an education leader by focusing the humanity of children and their needs during this global crisis.
Georgia is leading. States should follow.