School Board in Augusta Set to Furlough Employees and Cut Teacher Pay

The Richmond County school board has passed a $225 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year, making up for a projected $24.5 million shortfall with employee furloughs, cuts in teachers' pay and reductions in teaching staff.

Many of the system's employees will face a furlough of four days -- and therefore cuts in pay. Teachers, who by state law cannot be furloughed, will still take a pay cut in local salary supplements they receive from the school board.

Dr. Dana Bedden, Richmond County schools superintendent:

"Please accept my apologies for any difficulties and hardships the furlough may create. While the furloughs were not something I would preferred, I really believed they were better than layoffs."

Bedden noted that about 90 percent of the school system's budget is personnel costs.

Despite the furloughs and pay cuts, many teachers and employees will still receive pay raises mandated by the state. The raises, known as step increases, will cover a portion of their incomes that they would otherwise lose with the furloughs.

The board is also eliminating several teaching positions through attrition and the non-renewal of some teacher contracts.

The budget comes as school systems across the state grapple with major funding issues due to the troubled economy and significant losses in revenue.

For more information about the budget, click here.

$800 Million Stimulus for Education

The Georgia school board has approved $760 million in federal stimulus funds for special education programs and Title I schools - institutions in low-income rural and inner city areas. In a specially called meeting Tuesday, the board voted unanimously to begin distributing the money immediately. The funding is part of the multibillion dollar stimulus set aside by the federal government to jolt the country out of an economic slump. Additionally, Georgia schools will receive millions in general funds from the stimulus package. The school board is expected to approve that later this spring.

Jefferson Schools Seek Charter Status

A northeast Georgia city will seek to make its schools a charter system. Jefferson's Board of Education unanimously voted to send a letter to the state Department of Education. The letter allows the state to start considering granting charter status. Jefferson's schools have 27-hundred students.

(Athens Banner-Herald)

Another County Gains Education Flexibility

The Georgia school board has approved the state's second district to join a new program freeing schools from many education mandates. The board voted 11-1 on Thursday to allow the Forsyth County school district to enter into a "flexibility contract" with the state. The contracts give districts a break from state requirements like class size and teacher pay in exchange for promises that students will perform better than is required under the federal No Child Left Behind standards. Gwinnett County was the first to enter into such a contract.

(Associated Press)

Perdue Wants Education Grant

Governor Sonny Perdue hopes to tap a major federal grant to bolster education in Georgia.

The state should be in-line to get more than $2 billion for education from the federal stimulus package. But in speaking to agency heads Wednesday, Perdue said he feels good about Georgia’s chances to also get more money from the newly-proposed grant called 'Race To The Top' that is part of the stimulus.

The program would reward states with innovative ideas in education reform.

Perdue says during his trip to Washington DC earlier this week he told the U.S. Education Secretary about his idea to pay new math and science teachers more than other new teachers.

"When he got through describing it, I asked him if he had looked at our proposal this year over science and math teacher differentiation--differentiated pay--paying for performance and all of those kinds of things, because that’s exactly what his vision is."

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Georgia, like other states, has a critical shortage of science and math teachers. At the same time the state has tougher curriculum requirements in those subjects.

Ga. House Panel Approves Budget

The House Appropriations Committee has approved an $18.9 billion budget that funnels hundreds of millions of dollars in federal stimulus money into Medicaid and education.

The amended budget for the current fiscal year passed by a voice vote Wednesday. It cuts more than $2 billion in state spending to fill a deficit. The federal stimulus money coming from Washington is helping blunt some of those cuts.

The budget restores $1.3 million to the state Department of Revenue to keep it from having to furlough auditors.

State lawmakers say that with tax revenues plummeting the state needs the auditors more than ever to make sure that Georgians are paying their fair share.

The full House is set consider the budget Thursday. It still must pass the state Senate.

On The Net: H.B. 118: www.legis.ga.

(AP)

Study Finds Disparities In Academic Testing and Pass Rates in Georgia High Schools

A new report says high school students in Georgia are failing academic tests each year, but still frequently making good enough grades to pass.

The study raises concerns that students in Georgia are entering college unprepared for the coursework there, and getting state-funded HOPE scholarships even though they may not otherwise qualify for them.

Students must graduate from high school with a B average to qualify for HOPE funding.

"If students are receiving the HOPE scholarship based on inflated grades, they're going to be much more likely to have to give it up," says Christopher Clark, a faculty member at Georgia College and State University who conducted the study. Clark says that based on the study, it appears that school systems are essentially giving passing grades to students who have not mastered the coursework.

"They'll be much more likely lose it, not retain the HOPE scholarship after, say, their first year, and they're much more likely to need to take remedial courses while being funded for the HOPE scholarship," says Clark.

The report compared students' grades and pass/fail rates with their scores on academic testing held at the end of each course in 2007. The tests are supposed to determine if students have mastered the course.

Some examples:

In 11th grade economics classes, about 35.85 percent of students failed testing on the subject matter, but only 5.87 percent failed the course, a gap of about 30 percentage points.

In biology, 41.62 percent of 11th graders failed that test, but only 16.77 percent failed that course, a gap of nearly 25 percentage points.

"The HOPE scholarship places a very, very high economic premium on achieving good grades in high school, and high school teachers themselves are in a situation where it's easier to feel greater pressure than university faculty would feel about the economic consequences of a grade," says Dr. William Bloodworth, the president of Augusta State University.

"Before the HOPE scholarship, there was no particularly direct dollar consequence to a grade, whether the grade was an A or B or C, and now there are such consequences," says Bloodworth. "There's a very strong suspicion that the HOPE scholarship has indeed in one way or another caused the teacher to be a bit more sympathetic to students and, on occasion, give grades that are higher than the grades that might have been given before the HOPE scholarship.

Clark's concern about apparently inflated grades is not new. And the scholarships, funded through the state lottery, have had their share of controversy.

Critics have argued that the scholarships have contributed to lowering Georgia's ranking in the U.S. on SAT scores, and that students who would not normally go to college now do so since it's affordable.

Clark acknowledges that more study needs to be done to determine if school systems are indeed inflating grades. The study only compared the grades and test scores. It provides no qualitative data of what schools are specifically doing in relation to the grades. Nor does it look at scores from previous years, or retention data from the scholarships. Clark also acknowledges that some courses require more subjective grading, which could, in part, explain the disparity.

But in his study, Clark asserts that school systems appear to be inflating the grades. State officials say that's because the coursework and the tests are based on the same performance standards by the state, and that, as a result, both grades and test scores should be consistent. Clark encourages further study on the issue.

The Georgia Association of Educators, however, argues that the coursework and tests don't always match. The association, which represents the state's teachers, also says no empirical data on apparent grade inflation exists and deny that teachers are intentionally misrepresenting student progress.

To see the study on the web, go to www.gaosa.org/research.aspx.

Muscogee Co.: School Budget Cuts Will Put Us In 'Dire Need'

The Muscogee County School District is scrambling for funding as they await the arrival of several thousand students of military families over the next two years.

School district officials say they’re going to ask the state legislature to exempt them from close to five and a half million dollars in planned cuts for the 2010 budget.

The US Army is closing down its Armor School at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and moving 30,000 troops and their families to Fort Benning near Columbus.

James Walker is Vice-Chairman for the Muscogee County School District. He says that move - part of the Army's international Base Relocation and Closure Program - will swamp their classrooms with over 4,000 new students:

"...and when you have that many children, we need school buildings; we need property, we need land to build the school's on; so the bottom line is that we need money to do all of this stuff. If we're going to be cut funds because the state doesn't provide a lot of money for building, we'll just be in dire need of money to get these things done, in order to accommodate the children that are coming."

Walker says the state's already cut close to four million dollars from their '09 budget.

But, the district is not taking any chances. They’re also turning to the Department of Defense, and federal and state departments of education to close the shortfall.

Right now there are 33,000 students in the Muscogee County School District.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of education issues statewide.

Students more interested in SATs than Bible classes

Georgia educators say students are more interested in taking SAT prep classes than Bible courses.

Two years ago, Georgia became the first state in the country to allow publicly funded Bible classes when lawmakers passed a groundbreaking law. But Georgia educators say students are more interested in taking SAT prep classes than Bible courses.

But interest has been minimal. Many districts say students aren't interested in a non-devotional course about the Bible. And some districts have avoided offering the classes because of concerns about lawsuits.

During the 2007-08 school year - the first year the state allowed the classes - just 37 of the Georgia's 440 high schools offered Bible as an elective. The state won't have numbers for this school year until June.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of this issue.

Cuts likely for state schools

Georgia colleges are bracing for even steeper budget cuts. According to the meeting agenda, tomorrow the University Board of Regents will be asked to approve 8 percent reductions for the current fiscal year. That's up from the 6 percent cuts the board already OK'd. The Regents will also vote on reducing employer contributions to health care plans. And students may have to pay a temporary fee of up to $100 to help fill the budget hole.

(Associated Press)

County applies for looser school rules

The first school system in the state has applied for leniency in state education rules. Gwinnett County would be the first to take advantage of the Educational Excellence law. It allows school systems to opt out of some mandates in exchange for greater accountability for student achievement. The county school board wants more flexibility in teacher pay, class sizes, and using aides in place of teachers.

(Associated Press)

Conference addresses education problems

The state of education in Georgia is the subject of a conference today at the University of Georgia. Dozens of education leaders came from across the state for the day-long workshop at UGA's Buckhead campus in Atlanta. Leaders from the Department of Education, UGA education college faculty and leaders from local school districts across the state. Issues included state funding of prekindergarten, teacher preparation, pay for educators and challenges for the state's higher education system.

N. Ga. grants to boost high school, college attendance

DAHLONEGA - The Georgia Appalachian Center for Higher Education (GACHE) at North Georgia College and State University is awarding 16 competitive grants totaling $98,000 to area high schools on Wednesday to support strategies to assist and encourage students to finish high school and pursue a college degree.

The high schools receiving the grants are Banks County, Chattooga, Commerce, Elbert County, Fannin County, Franklin County, Gilmer, Gordon Central, Gordon Lee, Jackson County, LaFayette, Lumpkin County, Murray County, Ridgeland, Sonoraville, and Woody Gap.

"We are excited that so many school principals, graduation coaches, counselors, and superintendents are willing to step up to the challenge of ensuring that their students graduate ready for college with real post-secondary choices," said Shirley Davis, director of the Georgia Appalachian Center for Higher Education. 

"We know the economic consequences of leaving high school without a diploma are harsh, and, in today s world, stopping short of postsecondary education is equally grim. We want every student to graduate from high school and have college as a viable option."

GACHE is housed on the campus of North Georgia College and State University in the School of Education and is funded by NGCSU and by the Appalachian Regional Commission.

As part of the Appalachian Higher Education Network and one of ten centers in the Appalachian states, GACHE provides resources to schools to increase student opportunities for pursuing postsecondary education. GACHE is modeled after widely acclaimed programs operating in the Appalachian regions of Ohio and West Virginia that have boosted college attendance rates by as much as 20 percent.

In a related story, an independent review of Georgia's math tests shows that the exams were valid even though thousands of students failed them.

The audit released by the Georgia Department of Education on Tuesday says questions on the math Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests strongly matched state curriculum. The results bolster claims by the Georgia Department of Education that math scores plummeted last spring because of harder tests and more rigorous classwork. Nearly 40 percent of eighth-graders - about 50,000 - failed the math CRCT this year. State officials say the audit was a routine review and was scheduled before the low test scores were released in May.

The audit was performed by edCount LLC.

(The Associated Press)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of education issues.

Georgia bucks national education trend

Georgia bucks the national trends on school performance under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to a new report. Unlike most states, the Center on Education Policy says fewer Georgia schools are facing the stiffest sanctions under the law. The number of Georgia schools taking last resort measures to improve fell from 51 in 2004 to 46 last year. But the report from says the drop could be because Georgia sets the bar too low for what is considered proficient.

(Associated Press)

Scores trickling in from CRCT re-tests

State officials say they will soon determine how Georgia eighth graders performed on standardized tests in a second try after failing the first time.

These results are important because another failing grade means the eighth graders will be held back.

Scores from those re-tests are starting to trickle in to individual school systems.

About 40 percent of eighth graders in Georgia had failed the math portion on the first try.

Education officials say that's because this year's test was harder than in years past. However, some parents and other critics say teachers were not adequately trained to prepare students for the tests.

The tests measure how well students are mastering concepts taught in the classroom.

The high failure rate caused a surge in the number of students attending remedial summer school classes this year.

State officials will release the results once they hear from all of the school systems in Georgia.

State exam scores up over all

Even though math scores among 8th graders are down, the Department of Education says by and large students improved across subjects on this year's state exams. New data says scores went up where new curriculum has been in place for two years or more. Scores plummeted on the sixth- and seventh-grade social studies test and the eighth-grade math test, both of which were in the first year of a new curriculum.

Charter school bills become law

Three new education laws are on the books. All of them pave a smoother path for the creation of charter schools in Georgia. The first signed today Governor Sonny Perdue makes it easier for charter school petitioners to seek approval and expands funding. The other two boosts funding to charter schools' infrastructure and gives school personnel access to state health insurance.

Democrats announce tax plan

Georgia Democrats are proposing a plan that allows counties that lower property taxes to tap into a 300 million dollar pool of education funding. The proposal would set aside 600 million from the state's reserve fund over the next two years for counties that reduce property taxes to use for educational purposes. The measures will face plenty of opposition in a Republican-run statehouse where lawmakers are already considering a range of other new tax plans. Lawmakers also unveiled a bipartisan push yesterday to make sure Georgians don't have to pay state income taxes on the stimulus checks they might receive from the federal government.

Report card on Georgia schools

A new report on Georgia schools in Education Week gives the state high marks for its curriculum standards, testing program and school accountability efforts. However, authors of the study say those policies are not achieving their potential. Georgia student performance on national exams as well as the state’s graduation rate received the lowest grades. Although the state’s graduation rate has been improving, Georgia still ranks 49th in the country for high school graduation rate.

$300,000 bond for CSU bomb threat

A Columbus judge has raise a previous bond set for a Columbus State University student accused of threatening to bomb the school.

Muscogee County Superior Court Judge Doug Pullen raised the initial $46,000 bond to $331,000, according to a Ledger-Enquirer newspaper report. Pullen, referring to the raised amount, said:

"I totally disagree with the bond amounts. This is more than reasonable considering what he's accused of doing."

Click here for previous GPB News coverage of this incident, and here for more reports of similar threats at Georgia educational institutions.