Governor’s Office Briefs Committee on RttT

At this afternoon’s joint House and Senate Education Committee meeting, Erin Hames, Governor Deal’s Deputy Chief of Staff, updated the joint committee on Georgia’s Race to the Top (RttT) program. She explained that the 26 school systems participating in RttT represent over 40% of Georgia’s public school students. Georgia was awarded $400 million in federal funds under the RttT initiative; half of which is divided amongst the participating districts based on the number of Title I students enrolled in those systems. The remaining $200 million will fund Georgia’s Longitudinal Data System (LDS) and pay for a revamping of teacher and administrator evaluations.

Change in Teacher and Administrator Evaluations

Hames said she is working with the 26 participating systems on the change in evaluations. Teachers will be evaluated using a Teacher Effectiveness Measure (TEM) and administrators will be evaluated through the Leader Effectiveness Measure (LEM) TEM’S will be comprised of four components:

• A rubrics-based portion
• A value-added component comprising 50% of an educator’s evaluation (part of which will be based on student standardized test scores)
• The Reduction of the student achievement gap (between highest performing student subgroups and lowest performing subgroups)
• Surveys of parent and student surveys regarding the effectiveness of educators. 

“Talent Management” = Firing, Rehiring, & Promotion Decisions

Hames said the TEM’S and LEM’S will drive “talent management” decisions including firing, rehiring, promotion, and recertification. The evaluations will also be used in the creation of a career ladder program, allowing teachers to stay in the classroom and make more money. 

Merit Pay

The RttT plan will initiate an opt-in merit-pay system for current teachers, but the merit pay plan will be mandatory for new hires. Hames indicated that educators in the 26 participating RttT systems will pilot the merit pay systems, and that the program is expected to go state-wide after legislative approval. 

Bonuses for Educators 

Teachers may receive signing bonuses for agreeing to move to rural high-needs schools and scoring well on their TEM. Hames said bonuses will also be available if educators make strides in closing the achievement gap between highest performing students and lowest-performing students. Hames said she hopes that RttT will allow for the recruitment of Teach for America teachers at high-needs schools and teacher pipeline programs.

Hames said she met with 26 partnering systems last week, and described the formation of three subcommittees which will work on the modification of the Class Keys Evaluation model, the quantitative measures like surveys.

Hames also described a planned adoption of Common Core Standards and a rollout in upcoming school years. She indicated that RttT funds will be utilized for this rollout.

School Turnaround

The final major piece of RttT that Hames described is the school-turn around portion. The four models which will be used to turn around low performing schools in the 26 partnering school systems include:

• Replacing the principal and 50% of staff
• Converting the school to a charter or allowing takeover by a Charter Management Company
• School closure 
• Transformation model

Focus on STEM

Georgia’s RttT application focused on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) advancement. Hames praised Georgia’s initiative to provide differentiated pay for beginning math and science teachers. She said that all school districts in the state will begin using science achievement as a second Adequate Yearly Progress indicator (instead of attendance, which schools currently use).

Innovation Funds Available

$19.4 million dollars is set aside in an Innovation Fund. Schools or school systems can apply for use of these dollars to fund innovative initiatives like a STEM Charter School or a teacher pipeline program.

What Happens When Federal $ Dry Up?

Representative Kathy Ashe (D-Atlanta) asked Hames about legislators’ role is in RttT and inquired about what happens when RttT dollars run out. Hames said she hopes that the 26 piloting systems would be able to identify cost-saving strategies, allowing additional resources to be allocated to RttT initiatives once federal funds expire.

LDS Rollout

Following Hames presentation, Bob Swiggum from the Georgia Department of Education demonstrated the Longitudinal Data System (LDS) for the joint committee. The LDS is installed in 147 of 180 systems across Georgia. Several educators from Hall County helped Swiggum in the demonstration.  The educators described the differentiated instruction they developed from the LDS.

Which School Systems are Participating in RttT?

The school systems participating in RttT include: Atlanta, Ben Hill, Bibb, Burke, Carrolton, Chatham, Cherokee, Clayton, Dade, DeKalb, Dougherty, Gainesville, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Meriwether, Muscogee, Peach, Pulaski, Rabun, Richmond, Rockdale, Spalding, Treutlen, Valdosta and White.

Meet state leaders who make education policy decisions at the 2011 PAGE Day on Capitol Hill event February 22, 2011. For more info and to register: http://www.pageinc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=138

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