What We’re Reading: Monday, September 29th

Welcome to What We’re Reading, a weekly rundown of the articles that caught our eye related to investing in our community or the things that make Athens great.  This week, check out an all-education edition of what we’re reading.  Stay tuned the rest of the week for more reporting on education in Georgia

Teacher Standing in Front of a Class of Raised Hands
Digital Vision. Digital Vision

ABH reports that Clarke County Schools Superintendent, Dr. Philip Lanoue, said last week that the state should go back to the drawing board on the new teacher evaluation system, the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System, to be partially implemented this year.  The new evaluation system requires that districts create Student Learning Outcomes for subjects not typically tested including music and art.  Lanoue said this provision will limit instructional time for students.

ABH also released an editorial on the new Teacher Keys evaluations.  The paper said that state legislators should heed the advice of Dr. Lanoue and the Clarke County School District after the district passed a resolution calling on the state to delay implementation of the new standards.

The AJC reports that Georgia will seek a delay in the Teacher Keys evaluations from the federal government.

On the AJC Get Schooled Blog, former Superintendent of Pelham City Schools Jim Arnold authored this guest post on some of the larger issues surrounding the new evaluation system and school reform generally.  He argues that Georgia needs to find ways to encourage teacher collaboration and development to stem the tide of teachers leaving the profession.  He writes that Georgia has 9,000 fewer teachers since 2009, despite an increase of the student population by more than 40,000 kids.

EmpowerED Georgia shares an anecdote from Jamie Vollmer on what separates running a business from running a school.

Lastly, we throw it back to March when Bertis Downs, former R.E.M. attorney and public school advocate, wrote a letter in the Washington Post regarding the impact of new education reform policies on public schools.

Bonus paper:  The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute recently released a paper on the investments the state has been making in our schools over the past decade.  Are we investing enough?

Got anything else we should be reading?  Let us know!

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