The Georgia House of Representatives passed what Rep. Randy Nix (R-LaGrange) described as “the most important and consequential bill we pass this year…a major collaboration between the House and Senate.”
SB 364, which changes teacher evaluation and testing in Georgia, passed unanimously Tuesday. It goes back to the Senate for agreement with the House changes. From there, it goes to the Governor for his signature.
Nix was one of the original sponsors of the bill that created the current teacher and leader evaluation systems in Georgia public schools. He also joined House Education Chairman Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth) in passing out a letter of support by almost every major education advocate organization in Georgia.
The letter, which was organized by PAGE (Professional Association of Georgia Educators) said, “Our state’s current testing and evaluation programs are a disservice to students and educators. Overreliance on testing interferes with the delivery of quality educational experiences to students, and the amount of testing alone takes away from instructional time. Our children deserve opportunities for classes like music, art, and physical education. These classes help develop the whole child, but are not easily evaluated by a test.”
The bill, sponsored by Senate Education Chairman Lindsey Tippins (R-Marietta), passed the House 172-0. Even Speaker David Ralston mentioned the merits of the bill.
“Isn’t it true that teachers should be freed up to teach more and test less?,” he said.
The House Education Committee listened to nearly three hours of testimony last week on SB 364, then came back two days later and gave it a “do-pass.” Nearly 30 speakers addressed the committee, and all but one urged them to pass the legislation
The bill, will decrease the weight of student “growth” in teacher evaluations and reduce the number of state-mandated tests for all students.
Some Highlights from the bill:
* The percentage of weight given to assessment results in teacher evaluations will be reduced from 50 percent to 30 percent, and from 70 percent to 40 percent for administrators.
* A student must be present for 90 percent of a teacher’s course for that student’s score to count in the teacher’s evaluation. This is up from 80 percent in the original version of the bill.
* State-required standardized tests would be reduced from 32 to 24.
* State assessments must be determined to be valid and reliable by a third-party evaluator.
* This would apply to all schools across the state.
