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Barrow County Board reviews measurable learning goals and seeks approval for assessment and curriculum platforms
Summary
The board heard a report on district measurable goals for 2025–26 that emphasize literacy and math growth and was asked to place a new governance policy (BAB) on the August 5 agenda; the administration also requested contracts for NWEA MAP and Formative by Newsela for assessments and classroom formative tools.
Chief Academic Officer Dr. Brown and superintendent Dr. Thompson presented the district’s short‑term measurable goals and related governance policy for the 2025–26 school year and requested board action on assessment and instructional platforms.
The district proposed five measurable goals, each targeting a 5 percentage‑point increase by June 2026: K–2 MAP reading growth, third–fifth grade reading on Georgia Milestones, sixth–eighth grade reading on Georgia Milestones, ninth–12th grade reading on the Milestones literature/composition end‑of‑course, and a high‑school math goal tied to the Algebra concepts end‑of‑course test. Dr. Brown emphasized these numeric goals as meaningful because each percentage point represents a set number of individual students (district staff quantified the 5% gain as equal to 156 K–2 students and 163 third–fifth students in the slides presented).
The superintendent recommended placing proposed Policy BAB (School Board Governance) on the August 5 agenda for public review and comment; Dr. Brown described the policy as a framework to align instruction to Georgia Standards of Excellence, provide consistent access to standards‑aligned materials, and emphasize a balanced assessment system.
Curriculum and assessment contracts were described: the administration recommended a multi‑year contract for NWEA MAP for K–8 MAP growth assessments (estimated cost $167,750 for ~11,500 K–8 students at $14.50/student plus a license fee). For grades 6–12, staff requested approval of Formative by Newsela (referred to in presentation as Formative/Newsela) including gold licenses, a vetted item bank, locked browser and AI item‑generation features; the FY26 price presented was $88,153.01 with an allowance for up to 3% annual cost increases.
Dr. Brown said the district has already trained staff in many of these tools and held a leadership summit to align board beliefs, system goals and school‑level planning. She recommended the board place Policy BAB on the table and approve the assessment and platform contracts at the August 5 meeting so instructional planning can proceed in the new school year.
