Georgia and nine other states last week were released from requirements of No Child Left Behind, a landmark federal education law some say created a national testing craze by requiring students meet increasing academic goals year after year.
States were granted waivers by the Obama administration in response to Congress’ failure to update the law since 2007, when it came up for renewal. Now, student test scores won’t be as pivotal to how schools are rated, Georgia schools will no longer pass or fail based on “adequate yearly progress,” and the state will not have to meet the mandate that all students test on grade level in math and reading by 2014.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution talked with Georgia’s top education official, Superintendent John Barge, about the state’s plans for monitoring and measuring school success.
Q: Georgia was one of the first states to apply for and be granted this flexibility. Why the urgency?
A: The urgency came because Congress has failed to reauthorize and address the shortcomings in the law, and we are still bound by that law and its consequences.
Q: When will schools start implementing these new rules under the waiver?
A: That begins this school year.
Q: Help parents understand the impact of this waiver. Is it accurate to say that this is one of the most significant changes to Georgia education in the past decade?
A: One of the consequences of No Child Left Behind was the reality that education became teaching to a test. Everything for a school hinged on passing the test. Over the last 10 years our [high school] students struggled in science and social studies. That’s because they were pulled from those courses in elementary and middle school to ensure they passed the test in math and reading [which counted under NCLB]. We’re no longer going to have that issue. The focus is no longer on the test. It’s going to be on everything our schools do to prepare children to be successful. And hopefully we can change the atmosphere in classrooms so teachers can go back to teaching, and not be consumed by the pressure of passing the test.
Q: What two or three changes do you feel will have the greatest impact on how Georgia students learn or what they are learning?
A: Each content area will carry the same weight. Science will be just as important as English and math. You’re also going to see a greater emphasis on ensuring students are reading on grade level in elementary school and middle schools.
Q: Everyone from parents to real estate agents has grown accustomed to using Adequate Yearly Progress as a measure for quality schools. Under the new system, how will people know how their school is performing?
A: Every school will get an index score. In the past, you made AYP or you didn’t, but you didn’t know what that meant. People understand that on a scale of 100, when you look at your child’s report card a 90 or better is pretty good. Below 70, you’re not doing so hot. Every school in the state will receive a numerical index score based on 100 points. And that’s how you’ll know.
Q: And that will be online starting when?
A: In the fall.
Q: No Child Left Behind was heavily criticized for placing too broad an emphasis on testing. But it’s been praised for bringing attention to students who were historically underserved — poor students, students of color, students with special needs. How will the new system ensure that these students are not slighted?
A: We’ve gone further than NCLB when it comes to attention to subgroups. Under NCLB, the size of your subgroup had to be at least 40. If you had 38 or 39 students in a subgroup, your data wasn’t reported. But all 39 may have failed the assessment, which means you had a problem. We’ve done two things: reduced our subgroup size to 30 and added a flagging system for every subgroup ... that would alert us to an issue. The difference is that, with NCLB, the performance of one subgroup could force that entire school to fail, and that’s not the case here.
Q: You’ve said that this new system will cut back on the “teaching to the test” culture that’s developed in public schools since NCLB was introduced. What role will testing have in the new system? Do you know what weight test scores will carry in determining a school’s performance?
A: No, that’s part of the refining process. We are still running impact data on what those weights would be. The overall achievement score will carry the largest weight. I don’t imagine it will be more than 70 percent.
Q: When you say achievement score, you’re talking about academics?
A: Yes. [At high school] it is not only end-of-course testing, it is the percentage of students testing college-ready on the SAT, the percentage of students passing AP exams. All of those indicators make up the achievement score. So the testing still plays a significant part, but it is all the testing we do, not just one test.
Q: NCLB laid out consequences for struggling schools. Districts had to offer transfers to schools in good standing and pay for outside tutoring. After years of failure, principals and teachers could be removed or the school could be converted to a charter. Does the new plan still have consequences for low-performing schools?
A: Yes. However, we did ask for our school systems to be able to provide those [tutoring] services after school, on Saturday, whenever. They know the students and they are probably better qualified to give students the exact services they need.
Q: We’ve been talking a lot about changes. What won’t change?
A: The attention and focus on the [breaking down] of data and the performance of [student] subgroups. That is part of No Child Left Behind that is good, and that we’re keeping and taking to a different level. We will also continue to focus on graduation rates. [Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests are] there ... the tests are there, it’s just the weighting is different.
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