December 1, 2001 TO: Honorable Richard Marable State Senator Chair, Education Committee Honorable Jeannette Jamieson State Representative Chair, Education Committee FROM: Office of Education Accountability RE: Annual Report for 2001 The Office of Education Accountability (OEA) is pleased to present its first annual report of activities from July 2000 through November 2001. During OEA's first year of operations, the following major activities were accomplished: 1. Development of a five-year accountability implementation timeline; 2. Production of a 1999-2000 Performance Report; 3. Production of a 2000-2001 Report Card; 4. Identification of indicators for the University System of Georgia, the Department of Technical and Adult Education, the Office of School Readiness and the Georgia Professional Standards Commission; and 5. School improvement - High Priority Schools (low performing schools). Timeline OEA is pursuing a careful, deliberate process to develop report cards, benchmarks and standards. In order to be equitable, since only a limited number of assessment instruments are currently in place Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCTs) in grades 4, 6, 8, K-12 schools will not be graded until the Department of Education's (DOE) assessment instruments are in place and trend data is available. As DOE implements new tests, data will be captured and included on future report cards - for informational purposes only. OEA will not issue its first "accountable" report card that will carry awards/interventions for grades K-8 until the 2003-04 school year, and grades 9-12 during the 2004-05 school year. OEA has published a 5-year timeline for local school systems outlining the phase-in of baseline years, standards setting years, hold harmless "pilot" report card years and "accountable" report card years. The timeframe is posted on OEA's website [www.ga-oea.org] so everyone will have a clear understanding of the report card and development process. Four remaining years in the development timeline are as follows: K-12 Report Card Development Timeline 2001-2002 School Year All Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests administered Grades 1-8 Baseline Year for K-8 Standard Setting for Schools K-12 Report Cards issued December 2002 (No Grades) 2002-2003 School Year Standards Set for K-8 Schools All High School End-of-Course Tests first administered Baseline Year for 9-12 Standard Setting for Schools Report Cards Issued in December o K-8 Hold Harmless "Pilot" Report Card - No awards o 9 12 Report Card (No Grades) 2003-2004 School Year Standards Set for 9-12 Schools Report Cards Issued in December o K-8 - First "Accountable" Report Cards issued with awards and interventions o 9-12 Hold Harmless "Pilot" Report Card No awards 2004-2005 School Year K-8 Report Cards issued in December with awards and interventions 9-12 - First "Accountable" Report Cards issued in December with awards and interventions Production of Reports 1999-2000 Performance Report OEA was mandated to issue its first report card on K-12 schools December 2001. However, the department felt it was important to provide schools with information about the achievement status of their students before that date. So OEA issued a K12 Performance Report for the 1999-2000 school year in May 2001. OEA's 1999-2000 Performance Report included student performance results from CRCTs in grades 4, 6, 8, the Middle Grades Writing Assessment, and the Georgia High School Graduation Tests. Student performance results for these assessments were presented for all students as well as for subgroups of students based on gender, race/ethnicity, disability, and limited English proficiency. Information at the school, school system and state level was provided in the full report on OEA's website. From November 2000 through May 2001, a Report Card Working Group of approximately seventy teachers, parents, administrators, business leaders, students, school board members, and others met to discuss issues related to the content and format of OEA's reports. The results of their work are reflected in both the Performance Report and Report Card. 2000-2001 Report Card OEA released its first disaggregated Report Card on schools and school systems December 1. In addition to information contained in OEA's 1999-2000 Performance Report, the 2000-2001 Report Card also included results from the Georgia Kindergarten Assessment Program - Revised test (GKAP-R), Stanford Achievement Series - 9th Edition (Stanford-9) test, indicators and demographic information. No grades or ratings are included on the Report Card. A copy of the Report Card Executive Summary for 2000-2001 is enclosed. Identification of Indicators In addition to development of a K-12 accountability system, the A Plus Education Reform Act of 2000 (H.B. 1187) also addressed accountability programs for all education systems in Georgia. OEA is required to identify performance-based indicators for each educational system by December 1, 2001 for the: University System of Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education Office of School Readiness Georgia Professional Standards Commission In November 2001, the Education Coordinating Council adopted initial indicators for all four agencies. First indicator reports will be published December 1, 2002. The indicators that were adopted are as follows: University System of Georgia (USG) Indicators By Institution Disaggregated By Race/Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Status, Gender 1. Expanded Regents Test pass rates (Request Board of Regents to expand the Regents Test to include Mathematics) 2. Retention Rates 3. Graduation Rates 4. Pass rate on all professional, licensure, and certification exit exams Technical and Adult Education (DTAE) Indicators By Institution Disaggregated By Race/Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Status, Gender 1. ASSET, pre-post test, or ACT 1. Retention Rates 2. Graduation Rates 3. Pass rate on all professional, licensure, and certification exit exams Georgia Professional Standards Commission Indicators 1. Praxis I and/or Praxis II Pass Rate 2. Number of unsatisfactory teacher evaluations for years 1-3 3. Percent of classes and number of students taught by teachers not certified in subject area by school/system Office of School Readiness Indicators Disaggregated By Race/Ethnicity, Disability, Language Proficiency, Socioeconomic Status, Gender 1. Percent of four-year-old children participating in Pre-K 2. Percentage and number of students passing the fall GKAP-R 3. Enhanced Program Quality Assessments School Improvement - High Priority Schools (low performing schools) School improvement initiatives may be the single most important part of Georgia's entire accountability effort. The Department of Education has received hundreds of calls from schools around the state voluntarily asking for assistance to help their teachers and students. As of August, 534 schools statewide were eligible for help, and 223 schools had voluntarily applied for support, impacting more than eighty thousand students. RESA instructional care teams are and will continue to be an important component in helping schools improve their student achievement. It is imperative that Georgia has one coordinated and effective accountability report card system that is augmented by a well-funded school improvement support system. In order to determine how many high priority schools Georgia has, OEA studied data for three subject areas (Reading, English/Language Arts, and Math) in grades 4, 6, and 8 for the 1999-2000 school year. After review of CRCT assessment results, a list of schools/school systems that "did not meet standards" in at least one subject at the 70% benchmark was compiled. Seventy schools in 42 school systems were identified. OEA recommended that DOE consider school improvement help for these schools immediately - rather than waiting until grades were assigned in several years. OEA also compiled a list of schools that "did not meet standards" in at least one subject at the 70% benchmark for all three subject areas for the 2000-2001 school year. Of the original 70 schools on the 1999-2000 list, 22 schools re-appeared on the 2000-2001 list for a second time. Nineteen schools appeared on the list for the first time. Twelve of 19 schools are participating in school improvement initiatives. Looking Ahead OEA has a heavy agenda to complete in FY 2002. The department will focus on four major activities as follows: Standards setting - student level cut scores for Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCTs) Student performance standards will be established for CRCTS in Grades 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 in reading, English/language arts, and mathematics; and for Grades 3-8 in science and social studies. Student level cut scores will be established for Levels 1 (Did not meet), 2 (Meets), and 3 (Exceeds). Standards setting - for grades on future report cards Ratings on indicators K-12 report cards will contain two types of information - grades and ratings. OEA will be addressing issues related to the assignment of grades for absolute scores on tests and progress toward improved student achievement. In addition, OEA will be addressing issues related to the assignment of exemplary, acceptable, or unacceptable ratings on indicators. Initiation of audit function Until grades are given to schools, the audit function will be used as a vehicle for addressing ideas that address anomalies in data, improve test administration, data reporting, etc. OEA will also work closely on a pro-active basis with local schools and school systems to help identify and address issues before grading starts. Enclosure