Author Archives: Stan Jester

Legislative Update

Posted on March 14, 2017 | 7 comments

8 days left in the legislative session, here’s where we are.


SR 192 – Elect School Superintendents and Appoint School Boards
Senate Resolution 192 is a Constitutional amendment to allow a local decision to vote for the superintendent and have the grand jury appoint the board.
The Georgia Senate has already passed the resolution, which allows local school districts to choose if they want to elect a superintendent and have a school board appointed by a grand jury.
Local school superintendents are currently hired by elected school board members.
The House has to approve the resolution with two-thirds support, and Georgia voters would have to approve the constitutional amendment on the November 2018 election, said state Sen. John Wilkinson, R-Toccoa, who wrote the resolution.
Then, local legislative delegations would decide whether to put the resolution before voters on a local ballot, which would then require at least 50 percent voter approval, said Tippins.
If a district does choose to elect a superintendent, the superintendent candidates would have to meet election residency requirements in order to qualify for the race. That means candidates for superintendent would be limited to those who live in a particular school system.

HB 425 – Opt Out of Standardized Testing
House Bill 425 would discourage punitive actions for students refusing to participate in federal, state or local mandated standardized testing.
Traditionally, many school districts like DeKalb insist that students cannot opt out of standardized testing and that those students who do not take the standardized tests will be penalized in accordance with Georgia Law O.C.G.A. §20-2-281
This bill passed the House 4-1 and is now in the Senate.

HB 273 – The Recess Bill
House Bill 273 would require local boards of education to schedule a daily recess for students in grades K-5. Recess would consist of at least 30 minutes of supervised unstructured activity time, preferably outdoors.
The state currently has no minimum unstructured playtime.  DeKalb County School District Policy IEDA requires grades K-5 to have at least 15 minutes of supervised, unstructured break time each school day.
This bill is currently being “held for further work with the author to make it aspirational instead of a mandate to avoid unintended consequences”.  I’m guessing the legislature is concerned about how schools would implement this requirement (i.e. would they reduce instruction, extend the day, etc … ).

HB 338 – Plan B to the Opportunity School District (OSD)
“Plan B,” also known as House Bill 338, was up in the Senate Education & Youth Committee for public comment. State Supt. Richard Woods gave detailed testimony on the bill and the Department’s efforts on school improvement then answered the Senators’ questions.
Concerns about the bill had a common theme: the efficiency of the State Board directing this instead of the elected State Superintendent; the need for a clearer definition of what makes a school eligible for the program; the need for exit criteria; the lack of funding; and in our case, the removal of school board members.
No vote was taken. A substitute bill is expected on Wednesday.

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Posted in Legislation

Useless Honors – 2017 Advanced Placement Honor Schools

Posted on March 8, 2017 | 34 comments

News outlets and blogs across the Metro Atlanta area are touting that the College Board and GA DOE are recognizing DeKalb County Schools as having “17 High Schools placed on the state and national Advanced Placement (AP) honors lists”.
Unfortunately, this “honors list” is the equivalent to a participation trophy. It’s really just a “thank you” note to the school district for spending so much money with The College Board.
These awards are based on enrollment and not academic achievement. If no teacher ever showed up to a single AP class and every student failed every AP exam, sixteen of those seventeen high schools listed would still have been named 2017 AP Honors Schools.
AP Classes in South DeKalb were an EPIC FAILURE this past year.
The 2017 AP Honors Schools are named in six categories

  1. AP Challenge Schools are schools with enrollments of 900 or fewer students and students testing in four of the core areas (English, math, science, and social studies).
  2. AP Access and Support Schools are schools with at least 30 percent of the AP exams taken by Black or Hispanic students and 30 percent of students passed with a 3 or higher.
  3. AP Merit Schools are schools with at least 20 percent of the total student population taking AP exams and at least 50 percent of all AP exams earning scores of 3 or higher.
  4. AP STEM Schools are schools with students testing in at least two AP math courses and two AP science courses (AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Environmental Science, AP Physics 1, AP Physics 2, AP Physics C, AP Computer Science A).
  5. AP STEM Achievement Schools are schools with students testing in at least two AP math courses and two AP science courses and at least 40 percent of exam scores on AP math and science exams earning scores of 3 or higher.
  6. AP Humanities Schools are schools with students testing in the following AP courses: at least one ELA course, two social science courses, one fine arts course and one world language course.

It appears to me that citing statistics on how many students are enrolled in AP courses has become a trendy but useless metric. What does that number really tell us? It certainly isn’t an indicator of the quality of education or achievement. At best, it is giving people a false sense of progress and success at their school. At worst, it undermines instruction in both AP and non-AP classes.

The AP Honors Schools, however, are a good indicator of who is dishing out a lot of money to the College Board for these AP Exams.

Related Posts
  Mar 2, 2017 – March 3, 2017 – Whoop De Doo – 2017 Advanced Placement Honor Schools
  Feb 21, 2017 – Feb 21, 2017 – EPIC FAILURE – AP Classes in South DeKalb
  Mar 6, 2016 – March 7, 2016 – Board approves Purchase of AP Exam for all students
  Mar 6, 2016 – AP Exams – Tax Dollars

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Posted in DeKalb County School District, Standardized Testing