Prior to the 2020 Legislative Session, teachers, students and parents sent a message to Gov. Brian Kemp and members of the Georgia State Legislature regarding high-stakes tests – the state tests too much. Last week, Kemp signed Senate Bill 367 into law — eliminating a number of high-stakes tests required each year and “returning valuable time to the classroom so teachers can do what they do best — teach our children,” the Governor said.
Senate Bill 367, sponsored by Senate Education and Youth Committee Chair P.K. Martin (R-Lawrenceville), will more closely align Georgia’s high stakes testing and assessment program with federal guidelines by eliminating five of seven tests mandated by state regulation. The bill shortens the length of Georgia Milestones and maximizes instructional time by creating a testing window within the final 25 school days of the academic year.
Senate Bill 367 had the full support of Kemp and it worked its way through the Senate and House and was developed as a result of a listening tour the Governor held with teachers, students, parents and administrators during the off-session.
This was only one of a number of education-related bills Kemp signed into law following the 2020 legislative session. Earlier, Kemp signed HB 444, at which time State Representative Bert Reeves (R-Marietta), sponsor of the bill, said he believes this bill is the best way to keep dual enrollment sustainable.
“We had to do something, the program was financially unsustainable,” said Reeves. “Making changes was necessary to keep the program going. It’s grown expeditiously over the past few years and is just not sustainable the way it’s going.”
Reeves said dual enrollment has a current fiscal year budget of about $100 million and a 2018 state audit found that general fund spending for the program had increased by more than 325% over the prior five years.
The changes set by the new law will reduce the number of classes high school students can take on college campuses by capping the college credit hours that would be paid through state funds to 30 hours. Classes taken as part of the dual enrollment program must be college core classes – not electives. The new requirements also limit the program, with some exceptions, to only 11th-and 12th-grade students.
Some other education related bills which have been signed by Governor Kemp:
HB 855, by Rep. Marcus Wiedower (R-Watkinsville), allows for the immediate assessment of students who enter foster care to determine if the students qualify for an individualized education plan (IEP). The students must continue to qualify for IEPs in order to receive services, but the process would begin more quickly in order to address student trauma
SB 430, by Sen. Bill Ligon (R-Brunswick), would allow private school and home schooled students to enroll in Career and College Academies in their resident school district if space is available.
SB 431 by Sen. John Wilkinson (R-Toccoa) seeks to define “on-time graduation rate” as the graduation rate of the four-year cohort of students that attend a school continuously from Oct. 1 of the calendar year four years prior to the calendar year of the regular date of graduation of that cohort and graduate on or before that regular date of graduation. The graduation rate defined in SB 431 would not supersede other definitions promulgated by federal, state, or local laws or regulations.
