Students are coming back for another school year, and, in most metro districts, so are those unwelcome, unpaid furlough days.
Teachers and staff in most metro districts will be taking two to three unpaid furlough days this year, part of the continuing fallout from back-to-back years of state cuts to education and local property tax slides.
Clayton, DeKalb, Fayette and Fulton counties are among the exceptions. DeKalb will be furloughing teachers four days and year-round employees seven days, while Clayton and Fayette, and Fulton are declaring this a no-furlough year.
School systems have resorted to furloughs, bigger class sizes, shorter teacher contracts and compressed school calendars as they’ve had to deal with the domino effects of massive budget cuts from the state — including more than $1 billion this year alone — and declining property tax revenue.
“The hammer just keeps hitting, and it keeps hitting the heads of different nails, I guess you could say,” said Herb Garrett, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association.
In the meantime, districts are under pressure to improve student achievement with high test scores and graduation rates and to deal with policy changes on graduation and math.
Teacher evaluationsystem to get tested
In seven metro districts — Cherokee, Clayton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Henry, Rockdale and Atlanta — and 19 others across the state, there’s anxiety about this year’s scheduled roll-out of a new teacher evaluation system that could eventually go statewide.
“The source of the angst is in the uncertainty and the unknown,” said Tim Callahan, spokesman for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, the state’s largest teacher group.
The 26 districts committed to piloting the evaluation system in exchange for a share of the $400 million Georgia received through President Barack Obama’s education reform initiative, Race to the Top. Critics have argued that it’s difficult to create a fair evaluation system that’s tied to student test scores and takes into account the wide range of students’ abilities.
No Child Left Behind mandates could be waived
The new school year holds the potential for huge change for Georgia schools and students, given the recent announcement that state officials are set to petition the federal government for a waiver from requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act — including the mandate of a 100 percent passing rate on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) by 2014. Georgia had an 82.5 percent passing rate for CRCT math and 91.2 percent for CRCT English language arts this year.
Teachers and parents have long complained that too much emphasis — and pressure — has been placed on boosting student performance on the CRCT, the focus of a massive cheating investigation in Atlanta and Dougherty County public schools. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has called some of the act’s goals unreasonable, asked Congress to make changes and, in the interim, given states the OK to apply for waivers.
State Superintendent of Schools John Barge is expected to ask that Georgia be allowed to move to a “college and career ready performance index,” which he said will more accurately reflect a school’s performance. His plan would allow schools to take into account not just test scores, but also factors including the percentage of students earning advance course credit, the percentage going on to college or technical school, and participation in career-related events.
While the state waits to see how the U.S. Department of Education responds to the waiver request, schools are expected to keep pushing toward the goal of the 100 percent passing rate, said Matt Cardoza, spokesman for the state Department of Education.
“I think teachers will like it because it more broadly defines a ‘good’ school than simple test scores,” Callahan said.
Requirement for graduation changing
As high schools say hello to the Class of 2015, they’re saying goodbye to the Georgia High School Graduation Test.
Starting with this year’s freshman class, students will be required to pass eight key courses to graduate. The end-of-course tests they take in each of those subjects will be more important — counting for 20 percent of a student’s grade, rather than the current 15 percent.
Fayette County is already upping the weight of the end-of-course tests for all high school students this year to 20 percent to avoid confusion about whose test counts how much, said Melinda Berry-Dreisbach, school system spokeswoman.
Math complaints spark expansion of options
Earlier this year, school districts were given the option by the state of offering traditional math classes, in addition to integrated math classes that combine algebra, geometry and statistics. That was based on persistent complaints from parents and growing concern about the high failure rates in math and on math tests.
But a recent survey of the metro districts shows mixed response to that idea, with some districts saying they couldn’t justify the expense of textbooks that would have a one-year shelf life since a new math curriculum is due out next year.
Clayton, Fayette, Forsyth and Gwinnett are among the metro districts sticking with integrated math, while Cherokee County is going back to teaching math by the traditional method of one discipline at a time. In Cobb County, officials have decided that incoming ninth-graders will take the traditional GPS Algebra.
“All other students will continue with the integrated math program,” said Doug Goodwin, a school system spokesman.
Math teachers — and science teachers, too — can expect bonuses this year, after the Legislature finally put money into a bill recognizing those as areas with teacher shortages.
More unpaid furloughs are coming to most districts
Furloughs are a morale issue for teachers and other school workers, who are being asked to do more but seeing less in their paychecks.
Gwinnett, the state’s largest school system, will be furloughing teachers and staff (except for school nutrition employees and bus drivers) for two days, one less than each of the past two years.
“The school district wanted to get rid of all three, but we just can’t afford it,” said Jorge Quintana, the school system’s spokesman. “One furlough day saves the district about $5 million.”
Atlanta’s planning two furlough days for its employees, but has said additional furlough days could be required to fill a budget gap.
Henry County will furlough most employees three days and administrators five days, better than last year when the furloughs were eight and 10 days, respectively.
Cobb County will be furloughing all employees for two days, down from five days last year, and will be cushioning the blow for some in January, when a delayed salary step increase kicks in for eligible employees.
A similar situation is taking place in Cherokee, where all employees will be taking four furlough days for a second straight year. Employees there who are eligible will receive a longevity/step increase, but still won’t be making much headway.
Teachers who started with the system in 2010-11 were hired at $41,500, but due to furlough days, actually only made $40,626. They’re getting a small raise this school year, but with the continuing furlough days will make only $41,115 — still less than what was supposed to be their starting salary, according to school system data.
SCHOOL START DATES
Students in Cherokee, Henry and Rockdale counties and Buford and Decatur city schools returned to school last week. Here are the start dates for other area districts:
Aug. 8: Atlanta city; Clayton, Fayette, Gwinnett and DeKalb counties
Aug. 11: Forsyth County and Marietta city
Aug. 15: Cobb and Fulton counties
Private schools: Metro Atlanta private schools have a variety of start dates. Some, such as Greater Atlanta Christian School, begin classes on Aug. 8; others, such as The Lovett School and The Westminster Schools, have different start dates for upper and lower school students.
Source: Area schools
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