Testing widens rift between governor and state school chief

I was off most of last week, but wanted to discuss the push by Richard Woods, state school superintendent, to take advantage of the testing flexibility built into the federal education law that replaced No Child Left Behind.

Woods is pressing ahead despite a growing rift with Gov. Nathan Deal over how Georgia schools should be held accountable for student performance and the appropriate weight of testing in the calculation. The governor has never been a fan of the state school superintendent, and the two men seldom present a united front, but the chill between them has now become a hard freeze as a result of their dispute over how to satisfy the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

Enacted in 2015, ESSA grants states more autonomy in how they hold schools accountable and allows them to back away from No Child's intense reliance on test scores. ESSA still mandates testing. States must test students in reading and math each year in grades 3-8 and once in grades 10-12, and in science once in each of the following grade spans: 3-5, 6-9 and 10-12.  (Georgia law still requires more than the minimum federal level of testing, which was a concern of many of the parents and teachers who provided feedback on the state's ESSA plan.)

But the results of those tests are not as consequential to a school's standing as they were under NCLB. States can now cite other evidence of student achievement and school quality, including student engagement, career and college readiness, school climate, reduced absenteeism and increased participation in Advanced Placement courses.

Gov. Deal opposes a retreat from test scores as a critical determinant of school performance, and he is now in open disagreement with Woods. Deal refused to sign off on the ESSA plan Georgia submitted to U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos two weeks ago, declaring in a letter to Woods that the plan fell "short in setting high expectations for Georgia students and schools." Woods countered that some of Deal's recommendations would return Georgia to a culture of "measure, pressure, and punish."

Deal is not alone in his fears Georgia may be moving to a less ambitious accountability system that gives schools a pass. In its review of the ESSA blueprint, the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education cautioned the performance of poor children, minorities, immigrants and other under-performing "subgroups" could be downplayed in the state scoring system.

"Georgia has set the expectation that all children will graduate high school ready for college and career, " wrote GPEE president Stephen Dolinger. "We believe the long-term academic achievement goals set forth in this plan are not ambitious enough for all children to achieve that goal."

As my AJC colleague Ty Tagami reported out of Thursday's state Board of Education meeting:

The question now is whether Secretary DeVos will heed Deal or Woods. In the meantime, Woods is pressing ahead with his belief Georgia should innovate its testing models, as permitted under ESSA.

Here is the release from the state Department of Education on a new task force to examine testing: