STATE TAKES STEP IN TURNAROUND PLAN

Georgia took its first step toward possible takeover of the state’s lowest-performing schools Thursday when a newly created advisory group met with the governor’s education board for the first time to begin looking for a turnaround leader.

The 11-member Education Turnaround Advisory Council is tasked with advising the Georgia Board of Education as it searches for someone to implement The First Priority Act.

The law passed this year requires a nationwide search for a Chief Turnaround Officer to target the state’s lowest-performing schools for intervention and help school districts devise and implement improvement plans. Districts that don’t show gains could lose control of their schools. Selected schools then could be converted to charter schools or handed to private, nonprofit operators.

Seven members of the advisory council are either leaders or appointees of advocacy groups for parents, teachers, school administrators and school boards. Four, including Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Meria Carstarphen, are political appointees of the Georgia General Assembly leadership. Carstarphen has handed some of Atlanta’s schools to charter operators. (She sent district employee Erica Long in her place Thursday.) All groups on the council sent a representative except the Georgia PTA, whose president, Tyler Barr, was absent.

State Superintendent Richard Woods is not on the advisory council but serves as an independent adviser. He lost a political battle to have the turnaround chief reporting to him.

The state education board, appointed by the governor, is ultimately in charge. The first decision: who to hire. The turnaround officer is technically within Woods’ Department of Education, but reports directly to the school board. There was a brief discussion about the job qualifications, with some arguing for an advanced degree and others for a strong track record in public schools.

“If you don’t have somebody with experience turning around public schools, then the buy-in is going to be very, very low,” said Jimmy Stokes, executive director of the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders.

The law requires “extensive” school turnaround experience but doesn’t specify public schools. It also requires a minimum five years as principal or higher level administrator, with related skills. It allows the education board to set other qualifications.

The advisory council recommended that the National Association of State Boards of Education conduct the search, and named Stokes as council chairman.