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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2007 > January > 16 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USCox targets education’s ‘great divide’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
All Georgia students need more intensive math education if the state is to rank higher nationally on test scores, state School Supt. Kathy Cox told Cobb County educators Tuesday.
“Math is the great divide in Georgia,” Cox said in a speech to the Cobb Education Consortium, a group of educators from grades K-12 and higher. “Why are our calculus students not even at the national average? We are not doing what we should be doing with math education.”
Georgia last year ranked at the bottom nationally on the math portion of the SAT. The state is in the midst of changing how math is taught, covering fewer topics with more rigor. The new approach is part of a broader effort called Georgia Performance Standards.
“The bulk of our students are not going to be sentenced to low level math classes any longer,” Cox said.
She said no students should be put on the slow track. But the speaker of the Georgia House, Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram), told the educators that, by the eighth grade, students should be identified as to what track they’re on: job training or higher education.
“We have got to quit being all things to all people equally,” Richardson said.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle told the group he is preparing legislation to encourage the creation of more charter schools, including career academies and magnet schools. Details of his proposals are supposed to be announced this week.
“I believe first and foremost in local control,” Cagle said. Charter schools operate under contracts with the state and are allowed to waive some state and local rules in order to pursue more effective teaching methods. Career academies give students job training and magnet schools offer specialized curriculums.
Cagle said 80 percent of the future workforce will need technical training, and career academies have a “100 percent placement rate.”
“That’s real education. That’s real success,” Cagle said. “We’ve got to have more avenues kids can plug into.”
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