Education

Georgia Panel Recommends State-Mandated Curriculum

May 30, 1984 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Copyright 1984, Editorial Currently, Georgia does not have a state-mandated curriculum. The Georgia Board of Education merely makes available to the state’s 187 school jurisdictions a set of curriculum guidelines.

Subcommittee Proposals

The final report of the 41-member Education Review Commission, which is composed of mayors, businessmen, educators, school-board representatives, citizens, and legislators, is expected to be released in October. Proposals for changes in the operation of the state’s public schools are being made by each of the seven subcommittees of the commission.

Four position papers “have been tentatively approved, pending the other position papers,” said Ronald C. Newcomb, information coordinator for the commission and a special assistant to Governor Harris. The final report, Mr. Newcomb said,3"won’t necessarily” contain the recommendations made in the position papers, “but for the most part it will.”

The four papers that gained approval:

Defined 77 skills that students should demonstrate competency in before receiving their high-school diplomas. The skills include: interpreting written instructions; making valid inferences from written material; using dictionaries and other reference sources to locate information; and being able to recognize the intent to persuade or mislead in written material. High-school graduates should also, according to the list of skills, understand basic computer terminology and demonstrate some ability to use computers and appropriate software for self-instruction, problem-solving, word-processing, and the collection and retrieval of information.

Recommended that there be a statewide college-preparatory program.

Recommended that an increased emphasis be placed on community and parental resources, including: community advisory committees; improved communication between the school and home; greater business and industry “input"; and parent-training programs.

For example, Mr. Newcomb said, parents should be told that it would be helpful for their children to be able to differentiate between colors by the time they reach kindergarten age.

Recommended that the state mandate a uniform curriculum for local school systems. “There are 187 local school districts in Georgia,” Mr. Newcomb said, “and there’s an expectation among many members of the commission that there’s got to be some uniformity from one system to another.”

Full-Day Kindergarten

Mr. Newcomb said the commission might also recommend that mandatory full-day kindergarten be established in the state and that a weighted funding formula be instituted.

The formula, he said, would recognize that some students, like the gifted and the learning-disabled, cost more to educate than other students; that some courses, such as chemistry, require more dollars per student than others; and that some grades, such as kindergarten and grades l through 3, are also more costly than others.--lck

A version of this article appeared in the May 30, 1984 edition of Education Week as Georgia Panel Recommends State-Mandated Curriculum

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Briefly Stated: March 13, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 21, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 7, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: January 31, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read