Georgia doesn’t emphasize high-achieving students as much as it could under new federal law, according to a report by the Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank.
President Barack Obama in December reauthorized the nation's main education law after a major rewrite by Congress that dialed back the emphasis on tests. The Every Student Succeeds Act also gives states more authority over educational decisions and shifted from an emphasis on struggling students in the prior No Child Left Behind Act. In a new report, less than a year after the new law was authorized, Fordham gives Georgia two out of four stars for the way it uses that flexibility to focus schools on serving high achievers.
The state got dinged for not including gifted students in its report card on school performance, the College and Career Ready Performance Index, and for weighting "growth" on test performance at less than half of a school's overall grade.
Many states got one star or none, so Georgia's two stars isn't so low under the Fordham formulation. And state officials say the judgment is premature, since Georgia hasn't modified policy yet to align with the new federal law. The Georgia Department of Education will be holding public hearings on the matter into October, with a rewrite of state rules not expected until next year.
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