Reports & Initiatives - Initiatives
Financing
- Funding Formula K-12: Cathy Sielke – Georgia’s basic funding formula – that series of weights and measures by which state revenue is distributed to districts – has remained stable since the early 1990s [fact check]. Efforts of the Perdue administration to address the funding structure have results in proposed changes to governance while leaving the actual funding mechanism unchanged. This presentation will discuss development of the Georgia school funding formula and proposed hypothetical changes to that mechanism for the future.
- Facilitator – Jeffrey Williams,
- Funding Formula 12-16: Rob Toutkoushian – Title: The Role of Georgia’s Higher Education Funding Formula in Setting Competitive Faculty Salaries: Description: The State of Georgia relies on a funding formula to make recommendations to the legislature about funding for public higher education. One of the intentions of the formula is to provide funding that will enable public institutions to be competitive with other institutions in terms of faculty salaries. In this session, I will examine how successful the state’s funding formula has been in trying to achieve this goal. I will show how faculty salaries in Georgia’s 4-year public institutions compare to those in peer institutions, and estimate the amount of additional funding that would be needed to become more competitive. Finally, I will offer suggestions on how the state’s funding formula might be modified to better achieve its goals.
- Facilitator – John Brown or Higher Ed Appropriations Committee
Compensation and Evaluation
- Models of compensation and evaluation: Eric Houck – In both the state’s Race to the Top application – and in Governor Perdue’s proposed legislation – teachers compensation may move to a new structure whereby teachers will be compensated for student performance as well as other qualitative measures. This presentation will address problems with the current compensation plan and assess the research base for various elements of the proposed plan for Georgia. It will also discuss fixes for both.
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- Design of Assessment (CRCT Anatomy), student learning, compensation model: Karen Samuelsen – Much has been made in recent policy proposals about measuring the value-added, or student growth, as a measure of teacher performance that is more fair than looking at proficiency, and a metric for reforming teacher compensation policies. This presentation examines current Georgia tests – the CRCT and EOCT – in light of their strengths and weaknesses as well as their ability to be adapted to measure student growth.
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Teaching and Learning
- Standards – Math: Denise Mewborn; English: Jim Marshall – To date, 47 states have signed on to a voluntary agreement to develop and support national learning standards in XX subjects. Georgia is one of those states. Developing national standards has implications for state accountability policies as well as implications for state control over curriculum. These two presentations will describe the historical development of standard-setting in mathematics and language and assess the content and scope of the current proposed national standards.
- Facilitator – Elizabeth DeBray-Pelot, Associate Professor – Department of Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy
- The Vision for Public Education in the State of Georgia: Maggie Glennon and Ruth O’Dell – The project framework is organized around seven major system components as follows: Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, Supports for Early Learning and Student Success, Human and Organizational Capital, Governance, Leadership, and Accountability, Culture, Climate, and Organizational Efficacy, Financial Resources, Physical Resources. The work of the planning team will be centered on engaging stakeholders to assist in the development of transformational principles within each of these system components.
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Governance
- Choice 2013 – panel discussion: Max Skidmore, Phyllis Edwards, L. C. (Buster) Evans, Preston Howard, Steve Flynt, Howard Hendley- Charter schools are part of a nationwide movement to create alternative public schools for students. However, few states have made charter schools as significant a component of their improvement aspirations as Georgia and none have offered the same choice as Georgia with the IE2 option. This panel will share its expertise in using these two programs to initiate significant improvements in Georgia school districts.
- Charters and school turnaround: Susan Walker, Partnership and Jay W. Homan, Principal Henderson Middle School – Charter schools are part of a federal imitative to turn around low performing schools. This presentation will review the research on charter schools as change agents for existing public schools and present policy alternatives for moving forward.
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- Small schools – April Peters – School size has been discussed as one factor to encourage greater personalization for students. April Peters discusses the research behind small high school effectiveness studies.
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- Boards of Education: Sis Henry – Changing federal and state policies have direct impact on the work of local boards of education. Sis Henry will describe these changing roles and their potential impact for students and parents.
- Facilitator – Ronald K. Hopkins, Chairman, Jefferson City Board of Education
