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Education

More legislation seeks to rollback tests in teacher evaluations

By Ty Tagami
Feb 11, 2016
ExploreMore legislation has been filed to reduce the weight of student test results on teacher evaluations.

Senate Bill 364 comes from Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-Marietta, chairman of the Senate Education and Youth Committee.

Filed Wednesday, it comes one day after another bill on testing and evaluations. Senate Bill 355 is by several Republican lawmakers, none of them on the education committee, which has general jurisdiction for K-12 legislation.

Tippins’ bill would reduce the weight of state tests in teacher evaluations to 20 percent in school districts that enter a “flexibility” contract with the state, meaning districts that opt to become either charter districts or system waiver districts. Another 10 percent would hinge on “multiple measures” — meaning different tests — developed by school districts with consent of the Georgia Department of Education.

The other bill — William T. Ligon, Jr., R-Brunswick is the chief co-sponsor — goes further, limiting tests to a maximum 10 percent of evaluations.

The current mandate for evaluations, adopted by the General Assembly in 2013, requires student “growth” on tests to count for at least half of each teacher’s evaluation.

Read more about this new legislation and download a copy at myAJC.com.

About the Author

Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.

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