In exchange for the exemption, Georgia officials agreed to implement a new school rating system that will judge schools on a wide variety of factors, including test scores, attendance, and college-readiness. It will also reward the highest-performing schools and force low-performing schools and schools with wide achievement gaps to accept interventions.
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan praised Georgia’s plan for rating high schools on factors such as measuring the number of graduates enter colleges without need for remediation.
"And the idea is starting to hold high schools accountable for what are what their schools are doing not just to reduce dropout rates but to increase graduation rates and then what are their graduates doing once they leave high school. We think that has very significant national implications," Duncan says.
State School Superintendent John Barge says the new systems should broaden the way that schools define success.
"I hope that we see a different atmosphere in the school because we’re no longer focusing the accountability on a single test score," says Barge.
Federal officials granted Georgia the waiver for next school year only and said they would consider extending it after the state has finalized all of the details for its new school rating index.
