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# **UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION**

THE UNDER SECRETARY

> July 1, 2003

The Honorable Wanda Barrs\
Chair

Georgia State Board of Education

2035 Twin Towers East\
Atlanta, Georgia 30334

The Honorable Kathy Cox\
State Superintendent of Schools

Georgia Department of Education\
2062 Twin Towers East\
Atlanta, Georgia 30334

Dear Ms. Barrs and Ms. Cox:

I am writing to follow up on Secretary Paige's letter of May 19, 2003,
in which he approved the basic elements of Georgia's State
accountability plan under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
(NCLB). I join Secretary Paige in congratulating you on Georgia's
commitment to holding schools and districts accountable for the
achievement of *all* students.

I appreciate Georgia's efforts to meet the Title I requirements and your
responsiveness to making changes as a result of the external peer review
of Georgia's accountability plan. The purpose of this letter is to
document those aspects of Georgia's plan for which final action is still
needed. Specifically,

-   Georgia must establish the standards and benchmarks for the other
    indicators (through the menu of indicators) and incorporate these
    indicators into the adequate yearly progress (AYP) definition for
    use in the 2003-04 school year. Please provide this information as
    soon as it is available.

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-   Georgia is working on better integrating its definition of AYP into
    its overall accountability system. As you complete this work, please
    note that the final system of rewards and sanctions must include AYP
    and apply uniformly across public schools and LEAs, with the
    exception that Section 1116 only need apply to schools receiving
    Title I funds. Please provide information about this system when
    finalized.

-   Georgia indicated in its plan that, as a transition step for
    students exiting special education, it would monitor student
    progress through a student support team. With respect to this
    approach, please confirm that these students are still considered
    students with disabilities under Section 602 of the Individuals with
    Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

-   Georgia indicated in its accountability plan the intent to compare
    the current year assessment results with an average of the most
    recent three years' results (including the current year) and use the
    most favorable results to make school AYP determinations. While
    Georgia may use this application of uniform averaging, it must
    provide the Department information on the impact and implications of
    this approach. The Department will contact Georgia to discuss the
    data to be submitted and a timeline for the submission of those
    data.

-   Georgia indicated in its accountability plan that a small percentage
    of students with disabilities, who receive Special Education
    Diplomas, do not take either the Georgia High School Graduation
    Tests or the Georgia Alternate Assessment during the 2002-03 school
    year. Please confirm that if there were any such students in
    2002-03, they were included in the accountability system as
    non-participants.

Georgia's use of the Georgia High School Graduation Tests (GHSGT) in
spring 2003 to determine adequate yearly progress (AYP) of schools and
districts was not acceptable and is the subject of separate
correspondence with the State. Final approval of Georgia's
accountability plan depends on the use of assessments in 2003-2004 for
AYP determinations that comply with Section 1111(b)(3) of Title I. Prior
to making AYP determinations based on data from the school year 2003-04,
Georgia must submit to the Department, for peer review through the
standards and assessment process, the assessments in mathematics and
reading/language arts it will use to hold high schools accountable.

Georgia must meet the above listed conditions before its accountability
plan can be considered for full approval. As soon as possible, please
submit the information and confirmations requested above to:

Ms. Darla Marburger

Deputy Assistant Secretary

Office of Elementary and Secondary Education

U.S. Department of Education

> 400 Maryland Avenue, S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20202

With regard to several issues in Georgia's accountability plan, the
Secretary has exercised his authority to permit the orderly transition
from requirements under the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) to
NCLB.

-   Georgia proposed in its plan to include students with the most
    significant cognitive disabilities in its accountability system
    based on their performance on an alternate assessment that would
    hold those students to different achievement standards from those
    all other students are expected to meet. All students with
    disabilities must be included in a State's accountability system.
    Moreover, §200.1 of the final Title I regulations requires that all
    students be held to the same grade level achievement standards. In
    addition, §200.6(a)(2)(ii) of those regulations states that
    "\[a\]lternate assessments must yield results for the grade in which
    the student is enrolled."

We have issued new proposed regulations that would permit a State to use
alternate achievement standards to measure the achievement of students
with the most significant cognitive disabilities (refer to the Federal
Register notice of March 20, 2003). For this transition year only, while
the proposed regulation is being finalized, Georgia may use alternate
achievement standards for students with the most significant cognitive
disabilities who take an alternate assessment to calculate AYP for
schools and districts. Those alternate achievement standards must be
aligned with Georgia's academic content standards and reflect
professional judgment of the highest learning standards possible for
those students. Moreover, the percentage of students held to alternate
achievement standards at the district and State levels may not exceed
1.0 percent of all students in the grades assessed.

We note that this transition policy is not intended to preempt the
rulemaking process or the standards and assessment review process, and
that the final regulations may reflect a different policy and/or a
different percent.

As required by section 1111(b)(2) of Title I, Georgia must implement its
accountability plan during this school year to identify schools and
school districts in need of improvement and to implement section 1116 of
Title I for the 2003-04 school year, including arranging for public
school choice and supplemental educational services. If, over time,
Georgia makes changes to the accountability plan that you have presented
for approval, you must submit information about those changes to the
Department for approval, as required by section 1111(f)(2) of Title I.
For example, Georgia indicated in its plan that for limited English
proficient (LEP) students, it would develop a monitoring system for the
2003-04 school year. Please provide to the Department your policy on
this issue once it has been established.

As delineated in Georgia's timeline waiver, Georgia also must submit
evidence that its assessment system meets the requirements of section
1111(b)(3) of Title I to the Department for peer review through the
standards and assessment process. Further, as Georgia makes changes in
its standards and assessments to meet NCLB requirements, Georgia must
submit information about those changes to the Department for peer review
through the standards and assessment process.

Please be aware that this letter does not address whether Georgia's
accountability plan for Title I complies with Federal civil rights
requirements, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title
IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities
Act, and requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act.

I am confident that Georgia will continue to advance its efforts to hold
schools and school districts accountable for the achievement of all
students. I wish you well in your efforts to leave no child behind.

Sincerely,

/s/

Eugene W. Hickok

cc: Governor Sonny Perdue