Day on Capitol Hill

Day on Capitol Hill Promotes Healthy Synergy with Legislators

By Guest Contributor Tom Mark, Ed.D., Director of Alternative Education, Tift County Schools

At this year’s PAGE & GAEL Day that educators are passionate about the required number of Carnegie Units but on Capitol Hill, teachers and issues that affect the students in their did not pass the standardized graduation administrators from throughout classrooms,” says Richard Fisher, princi- test. Since then, the legislation did pass. Georgia descended upon the state capitol pal of Len Lastinger Primary School in In his keynote address to the educato meet with legislators and leaders from Tift County. tors, Superintendent Woods delivered the Georgia Department of Education, During the morning session, DOE hope that the amount of testing would including State School Superintendent leaders addressed the newly implement- be studied and that it was his hope that Richard Woods. The event was co- ed Student Learning Objectives (SLOs). testing would be restructured so that stuhosted by the Professional Association Many of the comments from educators dents could be evaluated in a more diagof Georgia Educators and the Georgia were delivered with negative implica- nostic manner, instead of the test results Association of Educational Leaders. tions, as concern was expressed about reading like an autopsy report.

Although a winter storm nearly can- the high number of tests being given and “It is good to see that a connection is celled the event and hindered the travel the loss of educational time due to the being established between the educational of many in the northern part of the state, state-mandated examinations. associations and the state government,” the meeting was well attended by nearly On a more positive note, Jimmy Stokes, says Mickey Weldon, chief academic 200 educators, including a strong con- GAEL executive director, informed the officer of Tift County Schools. “There is tingent from south Georgia. “The high group that Georgia legislators were debat- a type of synergy being developed that is number of people attending, in spite of ing about awarding diplomas to the thou- important if we are to continue to make the bad weather, is indicative of the fact sands of former students who earned the progress in public education.” n

Following his keynote address at PAGE & GAEL Day on Capitol Hill, State School Superintendent Richard Woods (center) gathered with Tift County educators (from left) Dr. Tom Mark, director of alternative education; Mickey Weldon, chief academic officer; Richard Fisher, principal of Len Lastinger Primary School; and Debbie Brown, assistant director of Sixth Street Academy Alternative School.