Gwinnett County school board members voted Thursday evening to continue the district’s involvement in a state program that aims to give districts greater flexibility in teaching students.
Gwinnett’s participation in the program, called Investing in Education Excellence, or IE2, though has been under review by the U.S. Department of Education for nearly three years. A local citizen group — the Gwinnett School To Prison Pipeline — asked the department to investigate, claiming the program is not designed to help African-American and Hispanic students.
“It has not improved academic achievement,” Marlyn Tillman, a leader of STOPP, said after listening to the board’s discussion Thursday about extending the program.
The state created the program in 2008, but Gwinnett is currently just one of three districts in IE2. Board members asked several questions about the program’s flexibility.
Gwinnett’s goals were to have higher percentages of its students exceed state testing standards in language arts and math and to either meet or exceed those standards in science. Gwinnett officials said their effort has been somewhat hampered by several state changes in curriculum and new tests over the past five years.
“The baseline data (to measure student performance) keeps changing,” said Steve Flynt, Gwinnett’s chief strategy and performance officer.
Gwinnett officials must now negotiate a IE2 contract renewal with the state.
Meanwhile, Gwinnett Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks said Thursday the district’s plan to put cameras on school bus stop arms may not be carried out by the start of the new school year.
The district has been working with Redflex Traffic Solutions for nearly a year on a contract to install the cameras, but officials said Thursday the agreement is mired in red tape. District officials said they must reach an agreement with the county government to manage some parts of the effort. Gwinnett school officials hope the county government can approve an agreement next month. The school district would still need to approve the agreement.
“For us to have this done before school starts is real optimistic,” Wilbanks said, regarding installation of the cameras.
Gwinnett delayed the work with Redflex last year after competitor American Traffic Solutions appealed the decision, citing several factors, including an ongoing federal bribery investigation in Chicago. One former Chicago official was arrested last month on charges he took bribes from Redflex to help the company get a city contract.
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