Georgia’s education plan lacks ‘urgency” to raise achievement, group says

A group of educational experts gives Georgia’s proposal to comply with new federal education law low marks in several areas.

The Every Student Succeeds Act, passed two years ago, replaced the No Child Left Behind Act as the nation’s reigning law for schools. It deals mainly with accountability. While ESSA is more hands off than its predecessor, giving states more control over how to hold schools accountable for results on standardized state tests and other measures, it still requires a plan.

Georgia is awaiting approval of the 111-page plan it submitted to U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in September. In the intervening months, several groups have issued their critiques, including, on Tuesday, Bellwether Education Partners and The Collaborative for Student Success. The 45 education experts they convened rated Georgia's plan poorly on four of nine measures that govern testing and identification of under-performing schools. "Georgia's accountability system does not convey the necessary sense of urgency to raise the achievement of the students who are the furthest behind," the review says.