The state Board of Education is poised to cut winter-whipped school districts across Georgia a break.
A board committee unanimously approved a resolution that would allow districts not to make up as many as nine of the school days cancelled during the snow and ice storms that have slammed Georgia this winter.
The full Board of Education is expected to approve the resolution when it meets on Thursday.
“Most school systems are trying desperately to recoup these days,” Garry McGiboney, associate superintendent for external affairs at the Georgia Department of Education, told board members. “To put it mildly, they are waiting anxiously for this decision. They need that flexibility.”
Districts would be free to not make up the canceled days without getting special permission from the state. However, districts are not required to take advantage of the flexibility they would get from the resolution.
The number of days already canceled varies across metro Atlanta and across the state. Most districts in the metro area have missed at least seven days.
Helen Rice, who chairs the state Board of Education, emphasized that, while districts won’t have to make up all of the canceled days, their students will still be expected to take standardized tests like the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test and end-of-course tests. The resolution will not minimize the importance of those test scores as schools and districts are graded in the state’s evaluation system.
“It’s not giving a waiver for accountability in instruction and testing,” Rice said.
The federal government allowed Georgia to come up with its own system for evaluating schools and districts. That system, called the College and Career Ready Performance Index, replaces the evaluation system of the No Child Left Behind education law, from which Georgia has received a waiver.
Georgia would need federal permission to make big changes to or to ignore the index.
Districts can administer the CRCT from March 30 through May 2. The resolution would not change that testing window.
Georgia law requires that districts have 180 days of school. Districts can cancel as many as four of those 180 days without needing special permission from the state, meaning Thursday’s vote could conceivably reduce the school year by 13 days in some hard-hit districts.
While parents around the region have expressed concern over lost class time, many districts are taking such measures as adding to the length of the school day or canceling winter break to make up for the lost days.
Recent financial troubles have put more pressure on the school calendar. To save money, districts sought waivers from the state so they could have fewer than 180 days of school.
Most districts in Georgia now have a school calendar of less than 180 days, raising concerns that students aren’t getting as much instruction as they should in a state where academic outcomes frequently disappoint.
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