2021 Georgia Code
Title 20 - Education
Chapter 2 - Elementary and Secondary Education
Article 6 - Quality Basic Education
Part 2 - Competencies and Core Curriculum
§ 20-2-140. State Board of Education to Establish Uniformly Sequenced Content Standards; College and Career Readiness Competency Standards

1. The State Board of Education shall establish uniformly sequenced content standards that each student is expected to master prior to completion of the student's public school education. The state board shall adopt content standards for students in kindergarten through grade 12. Each local unit of administration may expand and enrich the content standards to the extent it deems necessary and appropriate for its students and communities. Each local school system shall adopt its own curriculum which shall include appropriate instruction in the content standards.
2. The State Board of Education, working with the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia and the State Board of the Technical College System of Georgia, shall establish college and career readiness standards to demonstrate competency in reading, writing, and mathematics aligned with the content standards adopted by the state board pursuant to subsection (a) of this Code section with the level of performance necessary to meet college-readiness standards in the state's technical colleges, community colleges, state colleges, and universities and in other advanced training programs.
3. The State Board of the Technical College System of Georgia shall require its institutions to accept core coursework completed by high school students for purposes of admission into its institutions.

(Code 1981, §20-2-140, enacted by Ga. L. 1985, p. 1657, § 1; Ga. L. 1987, p. 1169, § 1; Ga. L. 2011, p. 635, § 3/HB 186; Ga. L. 2012, p. 689, § 1/HB 713; Ga. L. 2015, p. 1376, § 4/HB 502.)

The 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, substituted the present provisions of subsection (a) for the former provisions, which read: "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."; and substituted "standards to demonstrate competency in reading, writing, and mathematics aligned with the core content standards" for "competency standards in reading, writing, and mathematics aligned with the core curriculum" near the middle of subsection (b).

- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2011, "the State Board of the Technical College System of Georgia" was substituted for "the Board of Technical and Adult Education" in subsections (b) and (c).

- Ga. L. 2011, p. 635, § 1/HB 186, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: "The General Assembly finds that:

"(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 and parents must understand that they have options for career pathway programs of study that join a college-ready academic core with quality career, technical, and agricultural education studies that result in a high school diploma and preparation for success in advanced training, an associate's degree, a baccalaureate degree, and a career;

"(3) Local school systems must provide every student with choices that are academically rigorous and aligned to opportunities in high-demand, high-skill, high-wage career fields and to postsecondary career and technical pathways leading to advanced credentials or degrees;

"(4) The State Board of Education, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, and the Board of Technical and Adult Education must work together so that academic courses that are embedded within career, technical, and agricultural education courses (CTAE) are given appropriate academic credit at the high school level and recognized at the postsecondary level;

"(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 provide all high school students with opportunities for accelerated learning through dual credit coursework leading to at least six postsecondary credits and have as a collective goal to graduate every student 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 and some form of postsecondary credential are key to success in the workforce and earning a family living wage."

- For article on the 2011 amendment of this Code section, see 28 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 115 (2011). For article, "Education: Elementary and Secondary Education," see 28 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 115 (2011).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Interscholastic sports not essential to prescribed curriculum.

- Although an important part of a school's program, interscholastic sports are extracurricular and are not essential to the prescribed curriculum which must be made available to all of Georgia's children. Smith v. Crim, 240 Ga. 390, 240 S.E.2d 884 (1977).

State board may require a lay advisory group's approval as to the textbooks the board selects, provided that in so doing the board continues to exercise the board's own independent judgment and responsibility in making the final decisions concerning the textbook selection and does not in fact attempt to delegate the board's decision-making powers to the advisory committees. 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 77-13.

- Teachers may teach only evolution or teachers may teach other theories concerning the origin of life, but the decision about what to teach must have a secular purpose and teachers may not intentionally endorse religion or a religious practice in the teachers' teachings. 1996 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 96-6.

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 68 Am. Jur. 2d, Schools, § 349 et seq.

- 78A C.J.S., Schools and School Districts, § 1074 et seq.