Revisions to Georgia’s Plan for Title II, Part A

PART I: Georgia’s Organizational Structure for the Implementation of Title II A

Four state agencies in Georgia have responsibilities for the preparation, certification, teaching assignments, discipline, professional development, and resulting publicly reported student achievement that define highly qualified teachers. These are:

1. 
   The Professional Standards Commission (PSC) – Responsible for setting and enforcing the teacher and paraprofessional preparation standards, state teacher assessments and certification; sanctioning teachers and paraprofessionals for professional misbehavior; teacher recruiting, and reporting teacher work force data for Georgia.
   
2. 
   The Board of Regents (BOR) - Governs the 15 state institutions that prepare teachers for initial and advanced degrees in content majors and education pedagogy; the Board of Regents sets principles and course requirements for teacher preparation at public institutions of higher education, and manages grant initiatives for innovative programs such as a teacher induction program or the higher education grants that are part of Title II, Part A.
   
3. 
   Georgia Department of Education (GDOE) - Responsible for professional development of teachers, setting the state teacher pay scale, establishing the state curriculum that teachers teach, student assessments, school improvement efforts and NCLB programs.
   
4. 
   The Office of Student Achievement (OSA)-Responsible for collecting, analyzing and reporting state student achievement data. Georgia operates a single statewide accountability system for public education that provides a focus for schools, creates a reward structure for success and gives parents information about how their children are performing. The system provides an accountability profile for each public school and public school district. The profiles include (1) adequate yearly progress for schools and school districts (2) a performance index for schools (3) performance highlights for schools and school districts.
   

As the state agency responsible for teacher preparation approval and certification, PSC has responsibility for the following requirements of NCLB Title II, Part A:

• 
  Review LEA applications, as part of the consolidated state application for NCLB funds
  
• 
  Provide feedback to LEAs on status of funds use
  
• 
  Monitor the compliance of statewide, state higher education (SHE) and local funds
  
• 
  Report annually on the state’s progress toward meeting the state’s annual teacher quality goals and improvement of LEAs toward meeting teacher quality requirements
  
• 
  Assess the impact of the funding on student learning
  
• 
  Assess the impact of the funding on improving teacher quality
  
• 
  Provide an educational role in interpreting the purpose and use of the federal funds allotment in collaboration with DOE
  
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  Provide technical assistance in developing a process to assure a highly qualified teacher in every classroom for each LEA
  
• 
  Develop mechanisms to support certification requirements with educational opportunities
  
• 
  Develop and implement state activities that complement LEA activities and needs
  
• 
  Work with the IHE to develop competitive grants for the state and LEA activities
  

• 
  Develop a plan to ensure that all teachers teaching core academic subjects within the district served by the LEA are highly qualified by the end of the 2005-06 school year
  
• 
  Develop a plan to ensure that all principals hired within the district served by the LEA are highly qualified not later than the end of the 2005-06 school year
  
• 
  Develop a plan to ensure that all paraprofessionals employed within the district served by the LEA are highly qualified not later than the end of the 2005-06 school year
  
• 
  Establish measurable benchmarks to mark each year’s progress toward a highly qualified teaching staff
  
• 
  Report on progress to assure highly qualified teachers each year beginning with 2001 through 2006
  

PSC Goals

1. 
   To provide technical assistance and guidance to Local Education Agencies (LEAs) as they develop an ongoing process to ensure quality teachers in every classroom
   
2. 
   To identify and implement state-wide activities that complement and support the local activities to ensure quality teachers in every classroom. These activities are related to the Department of Education (DOE) responsibilities for professional learning and the Committee on Quality Teaching (CQT) efforts to support educator quality
   
3. 
   To report on compliance of local school systems in meeting the goal of a highly qualified teacher in every classroom by 2006
   

Title II, Part A - Administration

The Professional Standards Commission uses a portion of the Title II, Part A administrative funds to employ seven state consultants who work in assigned regions of the state to assist school district personnel in understanding and applying the requirements of Title II, Part A in each of Georgia’s 183 school districts and the state schools.

Additional PSC staff hired with Title II, Part A funds include a data specialist, a part-time program coordinator, an administrative assistant and a clerk. The PSC provides in-kind support with the services of the Director of Educator Preparation, who is the Title II, Part A program administrator, the Director of Certification, the Director of Special Projects, the Director of Technology and two education staff specialists. The Board of Regents appointed the University of Georgia as the higher education institution to handle the state IHE grant funds of Title II, Part A. The University has a Director of Teacher Quality who collaborates with the PSC and the GDOE. The GDOE uses a portion of the Title II, Part A funds to pay the salary of the Associate Director of Teacher Quality, and provides in kind service of the Director of Teacher Quality. A staff member in the Title I program and a staff specialist in the DOE Department of Special Education also provide input. OSA coordinates the data collection for the state report card including the list of highly qualified teachers by school and district.

Federal funds for NCLB are granted to the Georgia Department of Education. The Department in turn contracts with the Professional Standards Commission to carry out the work of Title II, Part A.

Georgia’s Highly Qualified Teacher Definition

In 2002-03, Georgia adopted a basic definition of a highly qualified teacher as one who holds a bachelor’s degree or higher, has a major in the subject area or has passed the state teacher content assessment, and is assigned to teach his/her major subject(s). A veteran teacher is one who has had three or more years of successful teaching experience. A set of state guidelines located at http://www.gapsc.com/ defines the highly qualified status of every type of teacher in Georgia who serves as teacher of record for core academic content, including the special education teacher.

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