On Friday, state School Superintendent Richard Woods visited Dalton to award New Hope Elementary School with a Georgia’s Literacy Leaders banner due to the school’s excellence in third-grade reading standards for the 2022-23 school year.
After the ceremony, Woods spoke on an assortment of topics regarding the next year of public education in Georgia and beyond.
First, Woods spoke on the metrics of the Georgia Milestones assessment system, which is a comprehensive testing program that spans elementary schools, middle schools and high schools across the state.
According to a report by the Georgia Department of Education, last year’s Georgia Milestones scores showed “positive indicators” in early literacy areas.
“Third-grade English language arts scores increased by three percentage points, while the percentage of third-grade students reading on grade level or above increased from 64 to 66 percent,” the report read.
“The Milestones is, of course, the marker we’re looking at,” Woods said. “I think, within the State Board of Education, we’d settled on the metric we’ll be using, so that’s within our Lexile score. That’ll have a direct bearing on accountability, so some of this is tied into not only how do we measure the success for our kids, but how do we measure our overall success for our schools and our districts as well.”
Woods also spoke about shifts in federal funding.
“The biggest thing right now, with all of the COVID(-19) money that we’ve received, that’s coming to an end,” he said. “So, that sunset is probably the biggest change that we will see across the state and throughout the nation, really. But it’s best for us in Georgia, so within the next couple of years, we will see the end of that.”
He said keeping a keen eye on the goings-on in the nation’s capital while having continued support is a key factor.
“Within district or within the federal budget as a whole, you always look at ‘What are they doing in Washington?’ when it comes to adopting a budget,” Woods said. “So, we’re always subject. For instance, if there’s a shutdown, that may or may not have an impact on us. That’s just dependent on how long things are out, but hopefully we can continue to get that support and see some flexibility from (the U.S. Department of Education) and the U.S. government as well.”
Woods briefly mentioned the budgetary outlook for the Georgia Department of Education for 2024.
“I think we do expect for our QBE (Quality Basic Education) funding formula, which is our funding formula for our schools, to be met from our General Assembly,” he said.
Brought into law by the 1985 session of the General Assembly to set provisions for educational funding in the state for kindergarten through 12th-grade, QBE funding is comprised of three areas: full-time equivalent students, training and experience of certified staff, and health insurance eligibility for certified staff.
“As far as some other things that we’re looking at, we’ve been talking with the governor’s office,” Woods continued. “I think we’ll have the opportunity to maybe do some enhancements with some of the extra money that we seem to have; we’ve had some good growth. When you’re the ‘number one state to do business’ for 10 years in a row, a lot of things are going on, so we’ve been good with our revenues and we’ll continue to work with the legislature. But I think you’ll continue to see an investment in not only reading, which is important, but also math as well.”
Finally, Woods discussed a few concerns and goals for the upcoming year in Georgia education.
“I think when you look at threats and concerns, definitely we’re still rolling out of COVID,” he said. “That has not fully gone away, even though I think we’re making some changes. I think another thing, from the aspect of funding, is that if we at the state are asking our schools to do something or to do ‘X,’ we want to make sure that we, as a state, fund that. I believe that is important that whatever ask we may give, we need to make sure we’re funding it. That’s something we’ll continue to watch.
“School safety is always something at the forefront as well, so we’re looking at asking for (that) to be funded as a line item. We’ll continue to look at how that enhancement looks, but other than that we’re seeing a lot of good, positive growth in Georgia. SAT and ACT scores have been beating the nation again, so we’re seeing some good trends. We also have some announcements forthcoming that we are very excited about. I think our students, our teachers and our parents in Georgia are going to be really, really excited about what’s to come.”