The U.S. Department of Education has not been swayed by Georgia’s passionate defense of its teacher-evaluation plans, which are somewhat in conflict with what the state promised to do when it won a coveted Race to the Top grant.
In a new letter to the state, the federal department’s Race to the Top implementer-in-chief Ann Whalen reiterated that Georgia is still on high-risk status over concerns about the “overall strategic planning, evaluation, and project management” for its new teacher-evaluation system. The Aug. 1 letter from the department reads a lot like the original July 2 letter that put Georgia on notice that it might lose $33 million of its $400 million Race to the Top grant for failing to make good on its promises on teacher evaluations.
The federal department went a bit further in its new letter and questioned whether Georgia is implementing its new system in a “comprehensive and deliberate manner.” What’s more, the letter says, the state had “ample opportunities” to demonstrate its progress but has failed to do so.
The department did extend the deadline by which Georgia must submit a new plan, timelines, and list of deliverables for its teacher-evaluation system. The deadline had been Aug. 1; now it’s Oct. 15. A Georgia education spokesman said the state will be able to comply with the new deadline.
To read more, including the above-mentioned letters, please visit http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2012/08/the_us_department_of_education_4.html
