Wilkinson Pleased With Changes to Testing, Teacher Assessments

By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia

50th District State Senator John Wilkinson said he is pleased with a couple of bills that passed this legislative session that change how students are tested and how teachers are evaluated.

Speaking last Friday at the annual Policies and Pastries breakfast in Carnesville, Wilkinson, who is vice -chair of the State Senate Education Committee and a former educator, says Senate Bill 364 cuts the number of teacher evaluations down from six to two and cuts the number of standardized tests in half as well.

When it comes to evaluating teachers, Wilkinson said good teachers don’t need to be evaluated as much as they are now.

“I think if you’ve got a teacher who’s been teaching say, 28 years, and in every assessment they’ve ever received they’ve gotten an exemplary evaluation, do you really need to spend that time evaluating that teacher six times a year when it’s obvious they can teach?” Wilkinson observed.

Wilkinson said that time would be better spent working with evaluating the new, younger teachers.

“I think what we ought to be doing is working with our younger teachers and trying to assist them and trying to help them, instead of evaluating these exemplary teachers six times during the year,” Wilkinson concluded.

According to EducationWeek.org, a second part of SB 364 contains other significant changes for Georgia’s assessment program, including introducing new requirements that students demonstrate reading mastery by the end of 3rd grade, and mastery of “basic math skills” by the end of 5th grade.

It also cuts science and social studies testing, requiring them only in grades 5 and 8.

Senate Bill 364 passed unanimously in the State Senate, but was amended in the House where it also passed and is now law.