EdQuest Georgia
Overview
Policies should support high standards, personalization of learning, innovation, a strong accountability system, and aligned curriculum.
For public education to function optimally, an instructional system should be in place that makes the acquisition of knowledge and skills efficient, effective, and appealing. The basic components of this system include standards, accountability, instruction, and assessment. Once those are in place, an advanced instructional system develops innovative solutions to increasing student learning like personalization and project-based learning.
Benchmarks
The Education Commission of the States (ECS) identified 10 state policies to promote college and career readiness and align K-12 and post-secondary expectations and success. These recommendations mirror best-practice research from other high performing countries about the clear articulation of expectation at each level of study and the necessary standards that should be met at each level.
ECS Blueprint Policies
Glancy, E., Fulton, M., Anderson, L., Dounay Zenith, J., & Millard, M. (2014). Blueprint for College Readiness. Denver: Education Commission of the States.
Blueprint for College Readiness Georgia State Profile
- Georgia has addressed all 10 policies.
- Georgia is one of 12 states that aligned high school graduation requirements with college admission requirements in all core subjects, except foreign language.
Resources
Accountability
- Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA)
Innovation
- Governor’s Office of Student Achievement
Virtual Schools and Online Classes
- The Georgia Virtual School— GAVS is operated by GaDOE, is fully accredited and works in partnership with parents and schools to offer courses across the state through a teacher-led virtual classroom environment. The GAVS offers a full high school curriculum as well as Advanced Placement (AP) courses and a limited number of middle school courses. The school offers over 100 courses per year, serves over 30,000 students during the school year, and provides online courses to over 150 school districts. The goal of the GAVS is to supplement regular public, private, and home school course offerings to students.
- Georgia has three statewide fully online schools, which taken together, these schools enrolled over 18,000 students for the 2013-2014 school year, a 34 percent increase over the previous year.
- Local School District Examples:
- Gwinnett County – Online Campus
- Cobb County – Virtual Academy
- Forsyth County – iAchieve Virtual Academy
- Twiggs County Virtual School – Serves students across nine districts
- Fulton County Schools – Virtual Campus
- DeKalb County Schools – Online Academy
- Henry County – Online Academy
Dual Enrollment
- Governor Deal’s Education Reform Commission Recommendations
- Georgia Student Finance Commission – Program Enrollment and Guidelines
Opportunities
Keep moving forward;
strong policies in place:
Continue the commitment to college and career ready standards.
Continue Georgia’s rigorous graduation requirements.
Proceed with caution;
policies need some work:
Support the Georgia Milestone Assessment System.
Increase use of formative assessments to inform instruction.
Incorporate benchmarks to measure Georgia progress.
Ensure the accountability system holds schools and districts responsible for the success of all students.
Support District Use of Technology.
Support the Innovation Fund, research and evaluation.
Develop and expand supports for student-centered personalized learning.
Alert! Policy missing
or needs immediate attention:
None at this time.