WASHINGTON -- State Schools Superintendent John Barge on Tuesday presented a plan to measure school performance on a broader basis to the Secretary of Education, attempting to procure an exemption for Georgia from test-focused federal requirements.
Barge and Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., asked Education Secretary Arne Duncan for a waiver for the adequate yearly progress measure of the controversial No Child Left Behind law. Isakson said Barge's plan would be a template for other states, consisting of scores on the Criterion Referenced Competency Test along with other factors in a "performance index."
The waiver suggested that schools be judged on multiple criteria (20 for high schools, 13 for middle and elementary schools). Student attendance would be a factor at each school level. ACT, SAT and End of Course test scores would count in high school, plus the percentage of students who attend technical schools or colleges without requiring remedial or support sources.
"Nobody’s afraid of accountability, but they want to be held accountable for the full scope of work that they do and not just a test score," Barge said in a news conference in Isakson's office.
Barge hopes to have a waiver for this school year. Georgia schools can collect this year's data as a baseline to measure future progress.
One of the original authors of No Child Left Behind, Isakson joined Republican colleagues last week to introduce a bill to do away with the adequate yearly progress requirement, among other updates to the law. NCLB mandates that all students be proficient in math and science by 2014, a requirement now generally considered unrealistic.
But Isakson defended the law and lamented that updates have run into congressional gridlock. He said NCLB has generated valuable data on which students underperform and helped scores rise for some disadvantaged students.
"I personally think it was an unqualified success as far as its intent," Isakson said. "But like any legislation, as you succeed, you have to raise the bar and you have to build on the next stage, and that’s what this does."
Isakson said the waiver program, first announced last month, is a good way to deal with the fact that Congress has not acted to update NCLB. The criteria for Duncan to grant a state waiver remain unclear, though the White House plans to offer more specifics Friday.
Staff writer Nancy Badertscher contributed to this article.
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