The Governor's Office of Student Achievement (OSA) is the new name for the former Office of Education Accountability (OEA) that was established July 1, 2000 by the state law known as the A Plus Education Act. While our name has changed, the OSA mandate still focuses on:

     Improving student achievement
     Improving school completion

To achieve these goals, OSA's major purpose is the establishment of performance-based accountability standards for all of Georgia's education system, from prekindergarten through postsecondary grades (P-16). OSA also has responsibility for development of reports centering on education workforce issues. This is the fourth annual report on Georgia's public K-12 schools. OSA hopes that the information contained in this report and future reports will be used to make positive changes in education that will support teachers and help parents and students.

2002-2003 Report Card:

This report card contains test results as well as other information relevant to schools and their performance toward the goals of student achievement and school completion. OSA developed a phased-in timeline for the assignment of school grades and ratings that would have issued grades beginning in 2003. This timeline has been put on hold for Georgia because the passage of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal legislation mandated that each state build a single accountability system that incorporates the federal concept of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). OSA has worked as a partner with the Georgia Department of Education to produce the 2002-03 AYP Reports. OSA with a large committee of stakeholders in the education communities from around the state continues to forge ahead with establishing Georgia's K-12 accountability system that infuses the federal law with the state law. For more information on this process, visit the main OSA website: www.gaosa.org .

Differences Between AYP and Report Card Results

In compliance with NCLB and state law, Report Cards must show results on state assessments for all students tested. On the other hand, AYP academic achievement reflects students who meet the definition of full-academic year; in other words, a school's AYP determination with respect to academic performance is based on those students for which the school had the most opportunity to impact their performance.

The 2002-2003 Report Card includes four major sections:

1. Student performance results from Georgia tests
2. School performance indicators
3. School demographic information
4. National test results

The 2002-2003 Report Card allows the user to view multi-year comparisons at the school, system, and state levels. In addition, while viewing a school the user can opt to compare the school data to system and state data. Assessment results and other data are summarized at the school, school system, and state level. The report card includes assessment and other data disaggregated (when available) by different student groupings. These groupings are based on race/ethnicity, gender, disability, English proficiency status, economic status, and migrant status as required by the A Plus Education Reform Act of 2000 (state law) and the No Child Left Behind Act (federal law). For more information on how OSA disaggregated Georgia test results, Click Here. The report on each school reflects the school's 2003 AYP status and provides a link to the Adequate Yearly Progress reports. Test and other information was supplied by the Georgia Department of Education. For a detailed description of all the contents for each of these sections and rules of reporting, please see About the Report Card.