Georgia-2011-HB186-Comm Sub

To amend Article 6 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the "Quality Basic Education Act," so as to provide and expand career pathway options for high school students to ensure their career and college readiness; to provide for legislative findings; to provide measures to minimize the need for remedial course work for students in postsecondary institutions; to provide for career clusters of study; to require academic core standards to be embedded in career, technical, and agricultural education courses; to provide for end-of-course assessments; to provide for course credit for demonstrated proficiency; to provide for certain requirements relating to dual credit courses; to amend Chapter 14 of Title 34 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the Georgia Workforce Investment Board, so as to provide for the establishment of soft skills certification by the Governor's Office of Workforce Development; to provide for collaboration with the Department of Education to enable high school students to attain soft skills certification; to provide for related matters; to provide for an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:

The General Assembly finds:

(1) Our state's long-term prosperity depends on supporting an education system that is designed to prepare our students for a global economy;

(2) High school students must understand that they have options and pathways available to them that provide for a high school diploma and prepare them for success in postsecondary education, a career, or both;

(3) Local school systems must provide every student with choices that are academically rigorous and relevant to a career and to technical pathways;

(4) Both the Department of Education and postsecondary institutions must work together so that academic courses that are embedded within career, technical, and agricultural education courses (CTAE) and CTAE standards that are embedded in academic courses are recognized and given appropriate academic credit at the high school and postsecondary levels;

(5) Teachers should be provided with professional development opportunities that enforce the academically rigorous standards in relevant, project based coursework;

(6) High school students should clearly understand the options for dual high school and postsecondary credit, and the state should properly fund these options;

(7) Every state education agency, postsecondary institution, and local school system should have a collective goal that every student graduates high school with postsecondary credit;

(8) Georgia's strategic industries must be partners in our public education system (secondary and postsecondary) so that they are assured that our high school graduates are prepared for success in the workforce;

(9) Georgia's public education system must incorporate many different types of assessments and certificates into their programs so that a student's skill level is assessed and that it also has meaning to them for postsecondary and career success; and

(10) Georgia's students must understand that a high school diploma is the key to success in the workforce.

Article 6 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the "Quality Basic Education Act," is amended by revising Code Section 20-2-140, relating to the establishment of competencies and a uniformly sequenced core curriculum, as follows:

(a) The State Board of Education shall establish competencies that each student is expected to master prior to completion of the student's public school education. The state board shall also establish competencies for which each student should be provided opportunities, at the discretion of the student and the student's parents, to master. Based upon these foregoing competencies, the state board shall adopt a uniformly sequenced core curriculum for grades kindergarten through 12. Each local unit of administration shall include this uniformly sequenced core curriculum as the basis for its own curriculum, although each local unit may sequence, expand, and enrich this curriculum to the extent it deems necessary and appropriate for its students and communities.

(b) Stronger coordination between high schools and institutions of higher education is necessary to prepare students for more challenging postsecondary endeavors and to lessen the need for academic remediation in college, thereby reducing the costs of higher education for students, families, and the state. The State Board of Education, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, and the Board of Technical and Adult Education shall develop policies to ensure that students who complete the core curriculum established pursuant to this Code section shall meet the requirements for postsecondary college admission. The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia and the Board of Technical and Adult Education shall require their institutions to accept core curriculum coursework completed by high school students for purposes of admission into a postsecondary institution. This shall apply beginning with students entering school in the fall of 2011."

Said article is further amended by adding new Code sections to read as follows:

No later than July 1, 2012, the Department of Education shall develop, and the State Board of Education shall approve, state models and curriculum framework for career clusters of study, including, but not limited to:

(1) Agriculture, food, and natural resources;

(2) Architecture and construction;

(3) Arts, audio-video technology, and communications;

(4) Business, management, and administration;

(5) Education and training;

(8) Hospitality and tourism;

(10) Information technology;

(11) Law, public safety, and security;

(13) Government and public administration;

(14) Marketing, sales, and service;

(15) Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; and

(16) Transportation, distribution, and logistics.

(a) The competencies and curricula established for career, technical, and agricultural education courses pursuant to Code Section 20-2-140 shall include embedded standards in academic core subject areas, as appropriate. In establishing such competencies and curricula, the state board shall work to ensure that the coursework meets postsecondary requirements for acceptance of credit for such coursework at the postsecondary level.

(b) Local school systems and individual charter schools may develop and implement career, technical, and agricultural courses with embedded standards in academic core subjects areas including but not limited to English, language arts, science, social studies, and mathematics.

(c) For an academic core subject area for which an end-of-course assessment has been adopted pursuant to Code Section 20-2-281 students shall be given the opportunity to take such end-of-course assessment upon completion of the career, technical, and agricultural education course that includes embedded standards in such academic core subject area, unless such student has already passed such end-of-course assessment.

(d) Students who successfully complete a course in career, technical, and agricultural education that includes embedded standards in academic core subject areas, as adopted or approved by the state board, shall receive course credit for both the career, technical, and agricultural education course as well as for the academic core coursework embedded in such course.

(a) The State Board of Education, in consultation with the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia and the Board of Technical and Adult Education, shall adopt a state-wide plan implementing methods for students to earn units of high school credit based on a demonstration of subject area competency, instead of or in combination with completing hours of classroom instruction. Such plan shall ensure that credit for demonstrated proficiency is reported on student transcripts in the same way that seat time credit is recorded. The state board shall adopt the plan not later than June 30, 2011, and commence phasing in the plan during the 2011-2012 school year. The plan shall include a standard method for recording demonstrated proficiency on high school transcripts. Implementation of the guidelines shall be done at the local school system and charter school level.

(b) Each local school system shall comply with the state board's plan adopted pursuant to this Code section and shall award units of high school credit in accordance with such plan. Local boards of education and charter schools shall establish implementation policies and shall be prohibited from setting policies that negate or otherwise prohibit access to such plan.

(a) For purposes of this Code section, the term:

(1) 'Dual credit course' means any arrangement whereby an eligible student takes one or more courses at or through an eligible institution while still enrolled as a public high school student and receives credit both at the high school and at the eligible institution.

(2) 'Eligible institution' means any eligible postsecondary institution as defined in paragraph (7) of Code Section 20-3-519.

(b) The department shall develop appropriate forms and counseling guidelines for dual credit courses and shall make such forms and guidelines available to local school systems and eligible institutions. No later than the first day of April each year, each local school system shall provide general information about dual credit courses, including such forms, to all its eighth through eleventh grade students. A local school system shall also provide counseling services in accordance with the counseling guidelines provided by the department to such students and their parents or guardians before the students enroll in a dual credit course. Prior to participating in a dual credit course, the student and the student's parent or guardian shall sign the form provided by the school system or by an eligible institution stating that they have received the counseling specified in this Code section and that they understand the responsibilities that shall be assumed in participating in the dual credit program."

Chapter 14 of Title 34 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the Georgia Workforce Investment Board, is amended in Code Section 34-14-3, relating to the establishment of the Governor's Office of Workforce Development, as follows:

(a)(1) The Governor's Office of Workforce Development is hereby established to implement state workforce development policy as directed by the Governor and to serve as staff to the board.

(2) In addition, the office is authorized to establish certification in soft skills, which may include, but not be limited to, skills relating to punctuality, ability to learn, and ability to work in a team, as a complement to the current assessment system utilized in Georgia to measure an individual worker's skill and knowledge in the areas of applied mathematics, reading for information, and locating information to determine and indicate to potential employers such worker's level of work readiness. Such certification is intended to assist both the existing workforce as well as the state's emerging workforce. The office is authorized to explore local, national, and international soft skills programs for the purpose of developing a soft skills certification system.

(3) The office is authorized and encouraged to work with the state's emerging workforce, including rising and graduating high school students, with the goal that, upon graduation, high school students have both a diploma and certification in soft skills and work readiness to enable them to be successful in postsecondary education, a career pathway, or both. The office may collaborate with the Department of Education to facilitate coordination with high schools so that high school students can attain certification in soft skills and work readiness.

(b) The Governor's Office of Workforce Development shall have an executive director appointed by the Governor whose duties are to implement state-wide workforce development policy as directed by the Governor, to serve as workforce development policy advisor to the Governor, and to serve as executive director to the board.