Sb 133 - Sr 287 - Education: Education Accountability (opportunity School District)
| Jurisdiction | Georgia,United States |
| Publication year | 2015 |
| Citation | Vol. 32 No. 1 |
SB 133 - SR 287 - Education: Education Accountability (Opportunity School District)
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Education Accountability: Amend Chapter 14 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Relating to the Education Coordinating Council, so as to Provide for the Establishment of the Opportunity School District; Provide for Definitions; Authorize the Opportunity School District to Assume the Supervision of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools that Are Qualifying; Provide for a Superintendent for the District; Provide Criteria; Provide for Rating of Schools; Provide for Intervention Models; Provide for Opportunity Schools Seeking State Charter School Status; Provide for Successful Opportunity Schools to Exit State Supervision; Provide for Funding; Provide for Applicability; Provide for Support Services and Flexibility for Schools on Warning, Schools on Probation, and Qualifying Schools that Are Not Selected; Repeal a Provision Relating to Appropriate Levels of Intervention for Failing Schools; Provide for Conforming Amendments; Provide for Related Matters; Provide for Contingent Effectiveness; Provide for Automatic Repeal under Certain Conditions; Repeal Conflicting Laws; and for Other Purposes
Code Sections: O.C.G.A. §§ 20-2-84, -186, -2068 (amended); 20-14-41 (amended), -100, -101, -102, -103, -104, -105, -106, -107, -108, -109, -110, -111, -112, -113 (new)
Bill Number: SB 133
Act Number: 24
Georgia Laws: 2015 Ga. Laws 92
Summary: The Act establishes the Opportunity School District and authorizes the district to supervise, manage, and operate qualifying public elementary and secondary schools that receive unsatisfactory ratings based on student achievement by subjecting such schools to one of four intervention
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models: (1) Direct Management, (2) Shared Governance, (3) Reconstitution as an Opportunity School District Charter School, or (4) Closure. The Act also provides significant details regarding the creation of the Opportunity School District and selection of qualifying schools, including how the new district will be funded, appointment and confirmation of a superintendent for the Opportunity School District, criteria and rating of schools for qualification and selection, and support services and flexibility for schools on warning, probation, or qualifying but not selected.
Effective Date: January 1, 20171
Local School Systems: Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of Georgia so as to Allow the General Assembly to Authorize the Establishment of an Opportunity School District to Provide for State Intervention for Failing Schools; Provide for Related Matters; Provide for the Submission of This Amendment for Ratification or Rejection; and for Other Purposes
Paragraph: Ga. Const. art. VIII, § 5, para. 8 (new)
Resol. Number: SR 287
Act Number: 309
Georgia Laws: 2015 Ga. Laws 1498
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Summary: The Resolution provides for submission for ratification of an amendment to the Constitution of Georgia that authorizes the General Assembly to establish the Opportunity School District as an intervention measure for failing schools.
History
Georgia's Waiver from Inflexibility under No Child Left Behind
On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. 2 "[The] NCLB significantly raise[d] expectations for states, local school districts, and schools" with the goal "that all students w[ould] meet or exceed state standards in reading and mathematics within twelve years."3 To meet this goal by 2014, the "NCLB require[d] all States, including the State of Georgia, to establish state academic standards and a state testing system that meet federal requirements."4
One of the cornerstones of the federal NCLB was a measure of year-to-year student achievement on statewide assessments, referred to as Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).5 Each state set annual levels of improvement for student performance on state standardized tests that school districts and schools must achieve.6 "These levels of improvement . . . establish[ed] the percent of students that must meet or exceed proficiency on math and reading/English tests each year," and the bar was raised higher and higher each subsequent year to reach the 2014 goal.7 For students attending public schools that did
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not make AYP for two or more consecutive years—classifying it as a "Needs Improvement" school—there were options of moving to a higher performing public school and receiving supplemental services that include before- and after-school tutoring or remedial classes in reading, language arts, and math.8
Though considered admirable by some, the NCLB received harsh criticism by many that the 2014 deadline was "unrealistic," the law was "too rigid and led to teaching to the test," and "too many schools [felt they were] labeled as 'failures.'"9 Arne Duncan, the United States Secretary of Education, referred to the NCLB as "outmoded and [a law that] constrains state and district efforts for innovation and reform." 10 Critics also stated that the NCLB placed too much pressure on students and teachers and contributed to school cheating in Atlanta and other locations.11 In 2010, a reported 28.9% of all public schools in Georgia failed to make AYP—the State's highest figure in the five previous years.12 With data showing that the percentage of Georgia schools making AYP dropped at every level of education (elementary, middle, and high schools), questions began surfacing among public school stakeholders about the effectiveness of recent reform efforts and the direction in which the state's schools are heading.13 By 2014, nearly half of the schools in the nation were failing to meet requirements under the federal law.14 The Center on Education Policy attributed this failure to some states having harder tests, having high numbers of immigrant and low-income children,
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and the NCLB requiring states to raise the bar each year for how many children must pass the test.15
The NCLB was due for reauthorization in 2007, but Congress failed to act—"stymied for years by competing priorities, disagreements over how much of a federal role there should be in schools, and . . . partisan gridlock." 16 In response to the law's continued rigidity and inflexibility, President Barack Obama (D) announced in September 2011 that the Administration would provide State Education Agencies with flexible requirements under the NCLB if states applied for waivers.17 Thirty-four states applied for and received waivers, with Georgia being one of the first to submit an application.18 State School Superintendent, Dr. John Barge (R), lauded the waiver as freedom from "the narrow definitions of success found in [the NCLB]," and Governor Nathan Deal (R) stated that the waiver would "give Georgia the flexibility . . . to pursue [the state's] goals of student achievement."19
Georgia Schools' Continued Failures Under the College and Career Ready Performance Index
In exchange for flexibility the State received under its waiver from demanding NCLB provisions, Georgia "had to agree to raise standards, improve accountability, and undertake essential reforms to improve teacher effectiveness . . . ."20 Georgia began fulfilling this promise by implementing a new statewide accountability system in 2012 to replace the AYP measurement, the College and Career
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Ready Performance Index (CCRPI).21 "CCRPI is a comprehensive school improvement, accountability, and communication platform for all educational stakeholders that will promote college and career readiness for all Georgia public school students."22 The new system measures schools and districts on a 100-point scale.23 The simplified scale is considered helpful for "parents and the public [to] better understand how schools are performing in a more comprehensive manner than the pass/fail system . . . under [the] AYP."24
Critics consider the Georgia CCRPI an improvement over AYP, which relied heavily on student performance on state exams, because the new system considers more factors.25 The overall score for a school and its district is composed of three areas: Achievement (70 points possible), Progress (15 points possible), and Achievement Gap (15 points possible). 26 Additionally, schools can obtain extra "Challenge Points" for their score (up to 10 points) if they challenge students to participate in college and career-ready programs; or have a significant number of economically disadvantaged students, students learning English as a second language, or students with disabilities meeting expectations.27
Still, under a new system that takes more factors into account and releases Georgia from the rigid constraints of the NCLB,28 the 2014 school ratings released by the Georgia Department of Education showed that statewide, on average, elementary, middle, and high schools' ratings on the 100-point scale were falling in comparison to the 2013 CCRPI ratings.29 Georgia's high schools scored lower and
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lower for three consecutive years.30 A school is classified as failing by scoring 60 or less on the CCRPI and 141 schools across the state, sixty of which are in metro Atlanta, have earned a failing score for three consecutive years.31 The results suggest that schools continued to struggle with providing quality education statewide, even under the flexible CCRPI. Hoping to address Georgia's continued school failures by implementing a solution based on similar successful initiatives in Louisiana and Tennessee, Senator Butch Miller (R-49th), one of Governor Deal's Senate floor leaders, officially introduced Senate Bill (SB) 133, known as the Opportunity School District (OSD) bill, and Senate Resolution (SR) 287 in the Georgia Senate during the 2015 legislative session.32
Bill Tracking of SR 287
Consideration and Passage by the Senate
Majority Whip Steve Gooch (R-51st), Administration Floor Leader Butch...
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