State education officials hope approval of a new social studies curriculum will turn the trend of high failure rates in future re-testing of Georgia middle schoolers.
Thursday, Georgia'school board is expected to approve a new curriculum for 6th and 7th graders. The hope is students will fare much better than last year’s failure rate of over 70-percent.
The revised curriculum was open to public comment earlier this summer. Education officials say the responses came mainly from teachers, and opinions spurred some small changes.
Dana Tofig with the Department of Education says now the training of teachers on the new social studies material will begin:
"Some people may say, ‘well, the school year has begun and how can you introduce new standards when the school year has begun?’...but, these standards aren’t so radically different. It’s a lot of the same material covered in the 6th and 7th grade before…it’s just a little more precise".
Tofig also noted just-released results of ACT scores across the nation. Georgia moved-up three spots to 41st in the country. However, over 60-percent of high school seniors still choose to take the SAT. Those results come out later this month.
Thursday, Georgia'school board is expected to approve a new curriculum for 6th and 7th graders. The hope is students will fare much better than last year’s failure rate of over 70-percent.
The revised curriculum was open to public comment earlier this summer. Education officials say the responses came mainly from teachers, and opinions spurred some small changes.
Dana Tofig with the Department of Education says now the training of teachers on the new social studies material will begin:
"Some people may say, ‘well, the school year has begun and how can you introduce new standards when the school year has begun?’...but, these standards aren’t so radically different. It’s a lot of the same material covered in the 6th and 7th grade before…it’s just a little more precise".
Tofig also noted just-released results of ACT scores across the nation. Georgia moved-up three spots to 41st in the country. However, over 60-percent of high school seniors still choose to take the SAT. Those results come out later this month.
