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Racing to the Top

a message from Superintendent Dr. Curtis Jones 

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I attended a symposium in Athens with the other 25 Race to the Top school districts. The University System of Georgia, Georgia Department of Education, the Governor's Office, and other agencies joined us to begin the hard and difficult work of implementing RT3.

This was the first time we all gathered to talk about what we're going to do, and how we're going to do it. Not deterred by the challenges ahead, we jumped right into one of the most difficult tasks: How do we measure teacher and leader effectiveness, and how does it relate to Pay for Performance?

As many of you know, you were asked to provide input to your principal, who then provided that input to us. You can click this link to see the collection of most of that information. (Some schools submitted their feedback afterwards. I did receive and consider that input, but this is the essence of what I had before the conference.)

It's important that you know I did not go alone.
Teachers and administrators must be represented as this process moves forward. You must have a voice in the process. Each system was required to bring at least one teacher or administrator. Our system felt it was important to take both a teacher and an administrator. I was joined by:

• Ellen Lee, the principal of Jordan Hill Elementary School
• Kay Brumbelow, the GSCS Teacher of the Year from Cowan Road Middle School

Below, you will see both their reflections on the conference. 

Also at the table was:

• The current Georgia Teacher of the Year,
• The runner-up for Georgia Teacher of the Year from two years ago, who has now been assigned to the Georgia Department of Education RT3 implementation team,
• The National Superintendent of the Year,
• The National Superintendent of the Year from three years ago.

Georgia is being well represented as we are developing new evaluations for teachers and administrators. Overall, there were 170 people collaborating. I believe many of your expressed and shared concerns are being addressed. I will continue to keep you updated.

I hope you take a minute to look at the agenda for the symposium. Once the PowerPoints from the symposium are available, I will get them posted to our website so you can look at them as well.

I bet many of you are saying, "Okay, fine. But how are my concerns being addressed?"
You have questions like:

• How Pay for Performance will be implemented?
• How will teachers be credited?
• Why are we going to reinvent the wheel?
• Why aren't we looking at what other states have done?
• Will this work?
• What does the research say about Pay for Performance?
• How do you relate this to Class Keys and Leader Keys that we're already moving forward with?

I was impressed with what the presenters shared.

• One presenter created Colorado's evaluation tool. Colorado is now leading the nation in teacher evaluations and relating it to pay. Not only did he talk about Colorado, but he also talked about what's happening in 15 other states which are using parts of Colorado's plan.
• We also heard from another national presenter about how they are implementing this in Ohio.

My overall assessment, from both your comments and the conference/symposium, is that almost all the issues that have been identified are being addressed.

What was key for me was that Georgia is not going to just adopt and adapt what these other states are doing. We're beginning with Class Keys. We're coming together in steering committees and talking about which power standards work best for us. We'll pick the best aspects from what other states have done, and create a teacher evaluation program that works for Georgia.

So, at the end of the day, what do I know now that I did not know before?

I know Class Keys will be the foundation for the new teacher evaluation system. It will not look exactly like Class Keys does now. Instead of having 26 elements, 10 to 15 power elements will be identified. That identification process will occur over the next six months, training will be established for this summer, and the 26 RT3 school districts will implement the new teacher evaluation system next school year.

Here in the Griffin-Spalding County School System, we are already scheduled to implement Class Keys in its entirety. The work we're doing is moving us in the right direction. Not only will we be trained and ready with power standards, we'll be ready with all the standards, so we can customize it to what we need. The same is true with Leader Keys.

I think it's fair to say that nothing else has been established at this point.

• We have the RT3 application and we know what is being planned.
• We're continuing to move forward with the school turn around models. As you know, Griffin high School is currently a part of RT3 as it implements its career academies next year.
• Everything else still remains to be determined.

Let's continue to work together.
So as you continue to have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Ellen Lee, Kay Brumbelow, or myself as we continue to work with the other school districts to determine how and where we're moving forward with Race to the Top.

If you had the opportunity to hear the President's State of the Union message last Tuesday, you recognize that Race to the Top is one of the highest priorities that the administration has. The same is true for both Georgia and the Griffin-Spalding County School System.

At the end of the day I'm excited for the Griffin-Spalding County School System.

I am happy and proud that:

• We are one of the school systems implementing RT3,
• We are helping to lead the state in developing the new teacher and leader evaluations,
• We are one of the school districts implementing a turn around model that has the proper amount of funding. Griffin High School is creating a new culture and level of performance.
• I'm excited and privileged to be a part of this!

Have a great weekend!

Curtis

Daring to do Better!

A teacher's reflections

• Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy;
   
• Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction;
   
• Recruiting, preparing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most;
   
• Turning around our lowest-achieving schools.

As an educator at Cowan Road Middle-a school heavily impacted by RT3-- I was especially interested in hearing how RT3 would affect the students and teachers at our school, and the Pay for Performance aspect.

Over the course of the symposium, we were exposed to data systems used by other states, given the opportunity to talk to representatives from other districts impacted by RT3 about questions and concerns, and ask the RT3 administrators these pressing inquiries. This question and answer time was very powerful-it gave me peace of mind knowing that our concerns were being heard and discussed among the leaders. I had hoped to leave the symposium with concrete answers; however, I learned that these answers do not yet exist. As the director for RT3 tried to make us understand where we are in the process, she used the following analogy: "if RT3 is a mountain we are to climb, we need to realize that at this point, we are merely at the supply store".

We have a long journey ahead of us, but I feel secure that this journey will ultimately lead us to higher achievement for our students. No matter how difficult the journey may be, or the hardships we will endure, we can feel secure knowing we are striving to do what is best for children.

Kay Brumbelow
8th Grade Language Arts
Cowan Road Middle School
Griffin-Spalding Teacher of the Year

Reflections on the Race to the Top Educator Effectiveness Symposium:
by Ellen Lee, Principal of Jordan Hill Elementary

As an administrator, attending the RT3 conference in Athens gave me an opportunity to go in on the ground floor of an educational reform that will bring improved student achievement and increased teacher effectiveness and accountability to Georgia schools.

The symposium brought together Georgia's educational leaders, including the Department of Education, District Superintendents from throughout the state, school administrators, and teachers, to work collaboratively to make decisions about the path that Georgia will take in the Race to the Top. This is the first step in identifying our priorities in using student performance data and academic growth as factors in evaluating teachers and schools. Educators will be looking at effectiveness measures including multiple student assessments, as well as district measures like graduation rate and college/career readiness.

The symposium presented an overview of the approaches to measuring academic growth that have been used effectively in other states; however, it is clear that educators involved in the decision-making process will factor in values that are inherent to Georgia schools. Student achievement and student growth will be the guide in determining the approach that we will take.

This is a challenging task and an exciting opportunity for GSCS and other Georgia districts to take positive steps to reward and retain effective teachers and improve instruction for all students.

Over the next few months, educators will meet to determine how Georgia will measure student growth and educator effectiveness. A more comprehensive rubric-based teacher evaluation system will expand the evaluation process to include student growth data and constructive feedback for teachers. Naturally, much attention locally and throughout the state has been given to Pay for Performance, but it is noteworthy that these are decisions that will affect all stakeholders-not just the educators who opt-in for Pay for Performance. I think that it is very significant that these decisions are being made with input from both teachers and administrators. I felt privileged to be included in this meeting of Georgia educators and look forward to following the progress and being a part of Georgia's Race to the Top.

Ellen Lee 

Principal, Jordan Hill Elementary School

Click here to Preview the February 1, 2011 Board of Education Meeting  

An update on Partners in Education Mini-grants and Education Foundation grants 

The recipients of the 2010-2011 will be announced during the week of January 31 - February 4, 2011. 

Kennedy Road