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House Study Committee on the Federal Government's
Role in Education
Wednesday, July 30
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On Wednesday, July 30th, the House Study Committee on the Role of Federal Government in Education that was created by HR 550 during the 2014 General Assembly, held its first meeting. The committee is co-chaired by House Education Committee Chairman Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth) and House Higher Education Committee Chairman Carl Rogers (R-Gainesville). The remainder of the committee is comprised of legislators, superintendents, educators, parents, and grandparents. For a full list of committee members and to view a recording of the meeting, CLICK HERE.
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Purpose of the Committee
Speaker of the House David Ralston convened the meeting. He introduced the committee members and described the committee's purpose: to review the origins and initiation of the Common Core standards as well as to determine the role and reach of federal government in the education system in Georgia.
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Superintendent Barge &
the History of Common Core in Georgia
In an attempt to dispel myths surrounding the standards, State School Superintendent Dr. John Barge described the history of the Common Core standards and Georgia's role in helping to formulate the standards. Dr. Barge explained that Common Core (CC) standards came about because of the need for portable standards that could be used in multiple states. CC is intended to ease the transition for students who move from state to state. He explained that CC was created by a coalition of states and that Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) were used, in part, to create CC.
Dr. Barge stressed that our current Common Core Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS) do not dictate curriculum or instructional methods. He showed committee members examples of several standards and explained how educators use curriculum and teaching methods created on a local district level to ensure that students learn the standards. He said the state has developed sample curriculum for school districts that do not have the resources to design their own.
Dr. Martha Reicrath, the Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction at GA DOE, continued the presentation by delving further into the history and necessity for CCGPS. She discussed in greater detail criticisms the department has received regarding reading lists. She explained that local school districts are not given a required reading list. Instead, districts are given suggestions for developing model reading lists.
Dr. Reicrath also described the integration of math standard and cited disagreement among Georgia stakeholders relative to the appropriate level of integration of standards. She mentioned that the math standards significantly increase expectations and assessments, resulting in a pressing need for enhanced teacher content knowledge. Dr. Robert Avossa, the Superintendent of Fulton County Schools and member of the committee, has been a vocal critic of integrated math standards, citing the extreme difficulty for students to learn these standards as well as difficulty for educators to teach these standards due to the limited availability of both hard copy and digital textbooks and other resources.
CLICK HERE to view the PowerPoint from which Dr. Barge and Dr. Reicrath based their presentations.
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Alvin Wilbank's Comments on Common Core
Alvin Wilbanks, the Superintendent of Gwinnett County Public Schools, delivered testimony regarding his involvement in the creation of the CCGPS standards. He described the timeline of the creation of the standards and Georgia's timeline of implementing the standards. After summarizing the history of the standards and their implementation, Mr. Wilbanks said, "From this brief historical retrospective, I hope it is clear that the Common Core State Standards were born out of a state-driven, widely inclusive process that led to a set of high-quality standards for learning that states were free to adopt or not. It has been painful to watch what I think can fairly be called the 'high-jacking' of this very important educational initiative by those whose motives are tied to an agenda that has much more to do with politics than education."
To view Mr. Wilbanks' entire testimony, CLICK HERE.
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GAAWARDS
Martha Ann Todd, the Executive Director of the Governor's Office of Student Achievement (GOSA), discussed GAAWARDS (Georgia's Academic and Workforce Analysis and Research Data System) with the committee. GAAWARDS is Georgia's research-focused P-20 longitudinal data system, housed at GOSA, that links individual level data across multiple state agencies. Its primary purpose is to provide matched data to each agency, allowing agencies to examine student trends over time.
To view more information about GAAWARDS, CLICK HERE.
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Other Federal Issues
Clara Keith, GA DOE Associate Superintendent, Race to the Top, delivered a presentation on title and competitive federal grants. She described to the committee the three main federal grants that Georgia receives including, those created by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Title Programs - Title I, Title II, etc.), the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Act (CTAE), and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA - Students with Disabilities).
Dr. Susan Andrews, Deputy Superintendent, Race to the Top, delivered a presentation on the Race to the Top grant received by 26 local school districts in Georgia. Dr. Andrews covered two myths commonly associated with Race to the Top. First, a reform agenda was not imposed on Georgia by requirements in the Race to the Top application. The Race to the Top Grant was a competitive grant for which Georgia chose to apply. Second, Georgia was not required to agree to implement Common Core State Standards in order to receive the grant. In the Race to the Top application, Georgia committed to continuing the GPS and aligning with Common Core State Standards in English/Language Arts, and mathematics.
Jennifer Hackemeyer, General Counsel for the GA Department of Education, followed Dr. Andrews with a presentation on student data sharing in Georgia. The GA DOE is only obligated to send aggregate data to the US Department of Education (US Ed). The department does not share any personally-identifiable information with the federal agency. Ms. Hackemeyer shared pages from the EdFACTS Workbook that the Georgia DOE uses to submit this information to US Ed.
To read more information about all three subjects, CLICK HERE.
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Next Meetings
The meeting concluded with statements from both chairmen regarding upcoming meetings. While no dates have been finalized, the committee is expected to conduct follow up meetings in Gwinnett County, Milledgeville, and Gainesville. The chairs indicated that public comment will be the focus of all three meetings and asked that those planning to speak provide the committee with written copies of their comments or presentation. The committee plans to hold long meetings to ensure all that would like to comment have the opportunity to do so. Stay tuned for more information about these meetings.
To read more information about the committee and to access documents from and a recording of the first meeting, CLICK HERE.
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Josh Stephens - Legislative Policy Analyst
Margaret Ciccarelli
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PAGE's core business is to provide professional learning for educators that will enhance professional competence and confidence, build leadership qualities and lead to higher academic achievement for students, while providing the best in membership, legislative and legal services and support |
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