Lisa Morgan
GAE President
Dear GAE Colleagues,
This afternoon Superintendent Woods released his “list of actions and recommendations to reduce the pressure of high-stakes testing in Georgia classrooms for the 2020-2021 school year.”
We are pleased that the recommendations include the following:
  • Virtually eliminating the 20% End of Course Milestones grade weight – the new weight will be 0.01% (due to state law it cannot be zero).
  • Waiving End of Grade Milestones consideration in promotion/retention – the official directive from DOE is that these tests are not the basis for promotion/retention decisions.
  • Providing flexible options for winter administration of End of Course assessments – districts will be granted as much flexibility as possible to administer Georgia Milestones appropriately and safely.
Under the next steps, the DOE announcement indicates that they have worked with the Governor’s Office on a proposed Executive Order that would waive the full TKES/LKES process for the 2020-2021 school year. 
GAE released a statement concerning the issue and I have written Governor Kemp. 
As I said in both the statement and letter to Governor Kemp, educators’ only focus during this continued time of crisis should be the physical, social, emotional, and academic well-being of students.
I am asking you to reach out to Governor Kemp concerning this issue, as well.  Call his office or send an email. 
Some things you might want to include in your message to Governor Kemp:
  • Identify yourself as an educator and talk about your school community.
  • Educators are spending a great deal of time in Professional Development to improve our instruction in the various models.  This is more beneficial to students than spending that time preparing for or responding to a TKES/LKES observation.
  • Asking administrators to adapt TKES to the various hybrid and remote instructional models eliminates the validity and reliability of the instrument.
You may hear from those who believe that our support of this action is a desire to avoid accountability.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Our support of this action is to promote shared accountability and mutual support amongst educators, families, and the community to ensure that our students emerge from this crisis physically, socially, emotionally, and academically healthy.
As always, thank you for being a member of GAE and for all you do for our students!
Lisa  

Rights at Night
Zoom Seminars

Rights at Night is a direct result of members' questions during a recent Zoom town hall meeting.  It was decided that in order to keep members informed, GAE would conduct periodic Zoom meetings on topics of interest to the membership.
Sign in to gae.org and look for Rights at Night links throughout the site to register.

Professional Development
in Your PJs

GAE Instructional Professional Development department is pleased to offer PD in your PJs.  PD in your PJs are professional development webinars offered during non-school hours.  These webinars are specifically designed for members from our needs survey.  Click for webinar descriptions
October 8
NBCT 6-7:30 Montgomery/Brookings confirmed
October 13 Webinar on Engaging Technology in the Classroom 6-7:30 -using Prezi and Padlet by (IPD Fellows)
October 20
Legal Victories  Craig Goodmark 6-7:30  (to be rescheduled - check website)
October 29
Cyber Safety 6-7:30  (IPD Fellows) 

Visit: gae.org/campaigns for the latest information
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