PAGE Legislative

PAGE Legislative Summary: 2016 Best in Recent Memory for Education

By Margaret Ciccarelli, PAGE Director of Legislative Services

The 2016 Georgia legislative session was the best in recent history for public schools. Election-year politics, increasingly effective advocacy by school supporters and a strengthening economy contributed to bipartisan support for Georgia students and educators under the Gold Dome.

Below is a summary of education-related legislation that passed during the 2016 Georgia General Assembly.

TESTING AND EVALUATION REFORM

In the wake of U.S. Congressional passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, state policymakers moved to approve critical student testing and educator evaluation reform, Senate Bill 364, sponsored by Senate Education and Youth Committee Chair Lindsey Tippins (R-Marietta). The legislation reduces the number of student-mandated tests from 32 to 24 by eliminating Georgia Milestones testing in science and social studies in grades 3, 4, 6 and 7. SB 364 requires local school districts to administer, subject to state funding, math and reading formative assessments in grades 1 and 2, and it requires state-mandated assessments to be verified for reliability and validity by a nationally recognized, research based, third-party evaluator.

Current law requires that students be enrolled in their teacher’s class for 65 percent of the term in order for their test scores to count toward their teacher’s evaluation. SB 364 increases this requirement substantially, mandating that students must attend an educator’s class for 90 percent of the term in order for their test scores to count toward their teacher’s evaluation. SB 364 also strongly encourages schools to push the testing administration window to the end of the term.

SB 364 de-emphasizes the testing component of teacher and leader performance evaluations by reducing this component from 50 to 30 percent for teacher evaluations and from 70 to 40 percent for principal and assistant principal evaluations. Professional growth will comprise 20 percent of teacher evaluations and that growth will be measured by progress toward or attainment of professional growth goals within the school year or across multiple school years. Teacher professional growth goals may include measurements based on multiple student growth indicators, evaluations and observations, standards of practice and other measures. The remaining 50 percent of teacher evaluations will continue to be comprised of classroom observation. In the case of school leader performance assessments, school climate will count toward 10 percent of the evaluation and a combination of achievement gap closure. Beat the Odds and College and Career Readiness Performance Index data will count toward 20 percent of the evaluation. Observation of principals and assistant principals will comprise the remaining 30 percent of an annual evaluation.

SB 364 makes clear that all educators will be evaluated on their own merits and that neither local school districts, nor the state, will enforce performance evaluation quotas. The legislation extends the five-day deadline by which the results of observations and evaluations must be made available to educators being evaluated to 10 days. SB 364 also allows school districts to develop tiered observation systems and to conduct observations of veteran, high-performing educators less frequently if the districts so choose.

2017 EDUCATION BUDGET

The fiscal year 2017 state budget contains formulaic increases for both student enrollment and educator training and experience. It also contains $300 million intended to minimize the ongoing austerity reduction to Georgia’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) funding formula. The FY17 partial austerity restoration leaves approximately $166 million in ongoing austerity cuts, and local school districts will receive their share of the $300 million based on student enrollment. Policymakers said during the legislative session that they intend for local districts to use the partial austerity restoration to end educator furloughs and increase educator pay by 3 percent. However, because the funding was not an enhancement to the state teacher salary schedule, individual districts will have the legal authority to use the funding flexibly based on local district priorities. Most local districts will end employee furloughs and many will pass along some pay raises to educators, though not all districts can afford to end all remaining furlough days and initiate a 3 percent pay raise.

The FY17 budget also contains statefunded teacher liability insurance. The cost of this item is not included in the budget, and budgetary language indicates only that the state will “utilize existing funds for the Educators Professional Liability Insurance Program.” The state provided state-funded teacher liability insurance in the past, but no claims were ever filed under the previous program so it was phased out. In large part, no claim was filed because the legal issues most frequently encountered by educators relate to employment disputes with their local school districts and certification problems with the Georgia Professional Standards Commission.

OTHER EDUCATION-RELATED BILLS • House Bill 65 by Rep. Michael Caldwell (R-Woodstock) requires local school districts and charter schools to hold two open meetings regarding their proposed budgets and to post their budgets electronically. • HB 100 by Rep. Tom Dickson (R-Cohutta) originally sought to change Georgia’s kindergarten age requirement. The bill languished until late in the 2016 session, when its sponsor stripped it of all its original language and used it as a vehicle to require local districts that operate virtual schools in which students from outside the district are enrolled to use at least 90 percent of the state funds earned for those students on the virtual instruction program. • HB 614 by Rep. Valencia Stovall (D-Lake City), the “Landon Dunson Act,” allows for the placement of video cameras to observe and monitor self-contained special education classrooms. School districts retain the authority to decide if they will participate in this program. • HB 659 by Rep. Dave Belton (R-Buckhead) requires local school districts to make publically available, to Vetoed the greatest extent feasible, school-level budgetary information, including the cost of all materials, equipment and other non-staff support; salary and benefit expenditures for all staff; professional development costs, including training, materials and tuition; facility maintenance costs; and new construction or major renovation costs reported on a cost-persquare-foot. Later in the session, portions of other bills were added to HB 659. The final legislation contains requirements related to competitive federal education grants of more than $20 million, intended to increase transparency regarding the grant’s impact on Georgia education policy, as well as long-term projections of unfunded costs. HB 659 also creates a pilot program for the flexible use of Title I funding for the 2016-17 school year. • HB 739 by Rep. Kevin Tanner (R-Dawsonville) directs local school districts to establish a review and recommendation process for locally approved instructional materials. The publication and review mandate excludes supplementary or ancillary material, such as articles, worksheets, novels, biographies, speeches, videos and music. • HB 777 by Rep. Mike Dudgeon (R-Johns Creek) allows school bus drivers to use cell phones as two-way radios. • HB 879 by Rep. Tom Taylor (R-Dunwoody) allows high schools to award a seal of bi-literacy on the diplomas of students who have demonstrated a high level of proficiency in one or more foreign languages. • HB 895 by Rep. Rahn Mayo (D-Decatur) requires additional financial training for charter school leaders. • HB 905 by Rep. Mandi Ballinger (R-Canton) adds child endangerment to mandated child abuse reporting requirements. Child endangerment is defined in several ways, including child cruelty, driving under the influence with a child and manufacturing illegal drugs in the presence of a child. • HB 959 by Rep. Beth Beskin (R-Atlanta) sponsored this session’s “Title 20 Cleanup” bill. In its final form, the legVetoed islation contains the following provisions: language clarifying the First Amendment rights of local school board members; exemptions from End of Course Tests for high school students who score above a 3 on Advanced Placement exams, above a 4 on International Baccalaureate exams or who earn an A, B or C in dual enrollment courses; clarification regarding dual credit diplomas; a provision enabling the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) to create unique identifiers to track children of military families; an allowance for the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement to receive and convert gifts of real property; and language authorizing both Charter and Strategic Waiver school systems to operate career academies. • SB 275 by Sen. Michael Williams (R-Cumming) also pertains to the speech rights of local board of education members and prohibits local boards from adopting or following any code of ethics that prevents board members from discussing freely the policies and actions of the board outside of board meetings. The bill does not apply to matters discussed in executive session. • SB 309 by Sen. Burt Jones (R-Jackson) prohibits the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) from limiting studentathlete religious expression except as required for athlete safety. The legislation also allows GHSA and non-GHSA member schools to scrimmage in games that do not count toward region standing. • SB 348 by Sen. Tippins allows for college and career academies in both charter systems and strategic waiver systems. Vetoed • SB 329, also by Sen. Tippins, contains duplicative language contained in the Title 20 Cleanup Bill (HB 959) related to student dual-credit coursework. The bill allows students to receive high school diplomas based on completion of certain dual-credit courses. • SB 355 by Sen. William Ligon (R-Brunswick) began its legislative journey as comprehensive reform to Vetoed Georgia’s student testing and educator evaluation program. As the bill moved through the Senate Education and Youth Committee, it was narrowed in scope. The final version of SB 355, entitled the “Student Protection Act,” codifies much of GaDOE’s existing standardized testing opt-out guidance. It allows families to request tests to be administered in penciland-paper format, and it prohibits the use of sit-and-stare policies. Assessments will be optional for students with life-threatening or serious health conditions, or students excused by a licensed physician’s or therapist’s order. The legislation contains provisions for rescheduling missed tests and for promotion of students who opt-out of standardized tests. SB 355 also protects educators and schools from being penalized for student refusal to participate in testing. • Non-binding resolutions passed during the 2016 session include SR 723, which encourages schools to guarantee student-athlete safety; HR 1253, which encourages dugout safety instruction; HR 1342, which encourages schools to increase student recess; and HR 1564, which encourages sudden cardiac arrest training in schools.

WHAT DID NOT PASS DURING THE 2016 SESSION?

Much of the important news from any legislative session includes details about what education proposals did not pass. Perhaps the most significant education initiatives in this category this year include those from the Governor’s Education Reform Commission (ERC), which recommended a slate of proposals including a rewrite of QBE and controversial reforms to teacher compensation. Many expected the ERC package to move through the 2016 General Assembly, but in his January State of the State address, Gov. Deal announced he intended to hold the reforms until 2017.

Two dangerous tax proposals, which would have limited the state’s ability to fund high-quality public education, died in large part due to advocacy by concerned parents and educators. HB 238 and SR 756 also jeopardized Georgia’s prized AAA bond rating.

School choice expansion failed to pass as well. HB 865, a proposed school voucher available to low-income students as part of a new tuition tax credit program, was not successful due to concern about its cost and opposition from proponents of the current tuition tax program in which voucher recipients are not means-tested. In its original form, SR 388 would have opened the door for a full-scale education voucher program. PAGE worked with legislators on a narrowly tailored amendment to ensure that SR 388 would not amend the Georgia Constitution to expand school vouchers. Ultimately, the resolution did not make it out of committee. Changes to Georgia’s Teacher Retirement System (TRS) were minimal. Special legislative rules applicable to fiscal retirement legislation require that fiscal TRS bills be introduced in the first year of Georgia’s legislative biennium and successfully advance to a summer actuarial study. Look for more TRS-related legislation during the 2017 General Assembly, as next year is the first year in Georgia’s biennial cycle. n

In the electronic version of this report available at pageinc.org under the “Legislative” tab, PAGE has included links to supporting documents and legislative voting records for some bills. Please take the time to see how your House and Senate members voted and to learn more about the legislative issues affecting Georgia schools.

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Growing Georgia’s Teachers

PAGE Primes the Teacher Pipeline Throughout Georgia

By Dale Gillespie and Mary Ruth Ray, PAGE College Services Representatives

It wasn’t that long ago that newly minted teachers emerging from Georgia’s colleges and universities struggled to find a teaching position. But the pendulum has swung fully in the opposite direction. School districts now struggle to fill vacancies. As the state’s largest organization for professional educators, the Professional Association of Georgia Educators takes the lead role in helping to identify, recruit, prepare and retain top students for teaching careers in Georgia public schools.

To prime the teacher pipeline, PAGE has established Future Georgia Educators (FGE) chapters in high schools across the state. We partner with colleges throughout Georgia to host full-day conferences for FGE students and their peers wishing to explore teaching as a career. During this school year alone, FGE conferences have hosted more than 1,200 potential teacher candidates from high schools in virtually every geographic sector of the state. The conferences also hosted 75 recruiting teams from 27 Georgia colleges and universities.

Then, in the postsecondary arena, PAGE provides essential professional learning to pre-service teachers in colleges of education throughout Georgia. Our learning modules, which comple-

• Code of Ethics: PAGE attorneys provide highly relevant presentations of the Code of Ethics for Georgia Educators. They emphasize how to prevent violations and they present real-life cases involving educators sanctioned for a violation. • Career Launch: This learning module helps college students prepare their resume, locate job vacancies and present themselves professionally in job interviews. • Education 411: This module tackles hot topics that arise during the first year of teaching — everything from how much and where a teacher’s pay comes from, to setting up a taxsheltered annuity, extra duties and KSU Educator Career Fair attendee Megan how administrators make decisions. Carey (right) talks with Melanie Evans of PAGE. PAGE has received outstanding responses from both high school and colleges for its work on populating ment rather than duplicate what is covered the teacher pipeline. We will continue our in the college curriculum, address issues support for future teachers to help them that tend to blindside young teachers: transition from high school students to teacher candidates to novice teachers. n

Cedric Winfrey (left), a Mercer student pursuing a Master of Arts in teaching, with Admissions Director Michael Clayton.

Colleges throughout Georgia welcomed PAGE onto 100 of their campuses this school year to conduct professional learning sessions with their education students. Topics included Code of Ethics training, launching your career and what to expect in your first year of teaching. PAGE will continue partnering with colleges of education to help students develop the soft skills needed to succeed as new teachers. For more information, contact PAGE Colleges Services Representative Dale Gillespie at dgillespie@pageinc.org.

(l-r) Cascade ES (Atlanta) student-teachers Shana Alexander and Jazmine Brownlee with Melanie Evans of PAGE.

Jamie Brown of Valdosta City Schools Department of Human Resources.