Governor Perdue announced the introduction of several pieces of legislation aimed at educational reform today.
SB 386, sponsored by Sen. Don Balfour, would increase pay for high performing teachers and principals. Performance would be calculated through a new, statewide evaluation tool that would take into account student improvement as well as peer reviews.
Rep. Matt Ramsey has introduced HB 1121 and HB 1111 which provide for penalties for anyone who tampers with or facilitates cheating on tests required by the State Department of Education.
“This legislation rewards our All-Star teachers through higher pay,” said Senator Balfour. “These teachers go all the way for our students and should be rewarded appropriately.”
Current teachers and principals would have the choice to opt into the enhanced pay model under the proposed legislation. The legislation would require the State Board of Education to adopt a common, statewide evaluation tool that takes student improvement into account in addition to peer observation of planning and instruction when assessing teachers and leaders by July 1, 2011. Using this tool, the state will calculate an Effectiveness Measure which will allow for increased pay for the state’s most effective educators.
Already twenty-three local school districts making up 41 percent of Georgia’s public school students have committed to a similar compensation model through the state’s federal Race to the Top application. The state will implement best practices from those districts in developing and implementing the statewide system.
The Governor also announced today that State Rep. Matt Ramsey, a Floor Leader in the House, is introducing HB 1121 and HB 1111, legislation that will ensure the integrity of the state’s education data.
“We must ensure integrity in our tests. This becomes even more important when we tie teacher evaluations to student improvement,” said Governor Perdue. “Valid data is the key to making good public policy decisions and developing a credible system of rewarding our top educators.”
For test cheaters, state Rep. Matt Ramsey (R-Peachtree City), a House floor leader, filed two bills, HB 1121 and HB 1111. Taken together, the bills would make it unlawful to knowingly tamper with state tests or help students or other educators cheat on them. Violators would be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to the loss of their pensions. Cheaters could also be fined. They would continue to face sanction by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, a state agency that polices teaching credentials.
No law in Georgia currently makes it a crime to cheat on state academic tests, a circumstance that came to a head last year when state officials found tampering on state tests taken in summer 2008 at four Georgia elementary schools. The state investigation came after an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of improbable gains at some schools on tests taken first in spring and then in summer. State officials later threw out those schools' scores. The scandal also led to sanctions against 13 educators, who officials banned from public schools for between 90 days and two years for their actions.
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