CACREP – Council on Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs

CAP – Central Auditory Processing

CAP – Corrective Action Plan

CBA – Curriculum Based Assessment

CBE – Community Based Education

CCGPS -- Common Core Georgia Performance Standards – Georgia’s version of the Common Core State Standards for English/ Language Arts and Mathematics.  They replaced the previous Georgia Performance Standards in those subjects.

CCRPI -- College and Career Ready Performance Index – Georgia’s school and district accountability system that replaced AYP when the state received a waiver from the U.S. DOE.

CCSS -- Common Core State Standards - The Common Core is a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy (ELA). These learning goals outline what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade.

CDA – Child Development Associate

CEISMC -- Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing at Georgia Tech University.

CEU – Continuing Education Unit

CIS – Communities In Schools: A community-based organization that helps children succeed in school and prepare for life. Through partnerships with schools, public officials, businesses, parents and the community, the organization provides numerous services to prevent children from dropping out of school.

CNA – Child Nutrition Act

College Board: Nonprofit organization that administers the SAT and AP programs.

Community Partnerships: Connections between local organizations and schools to help address students’ needs and improve achievement.

COTA – Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant

CP – Cerebral Palsy

CP – Certificate of Performance: Certificate for all students who do not pass the Georgia High School Graduation Test, but meet all other graduation requirements. Students who leave school with a certificate of performance may take the graduation test again as many times as necessary to qualify for a high school diploma.

CRCT -- Criterion-Referenced Competency Test: End of grade tests for grades 3-8. Discontinued in Spring 2014. (retired by state.  Now use the Georgia Milestones Assessment System)

CRCT-M – Criterion Referenced Competency Test – Modified

CTAE -- Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education – Division within the Georgia Department of Education responsible for administering the College and Career Pathways.

CU – Carnegie Unit: One unit of credit awarded in grades nine through 12 for a minimum of 150 hours of instruction during the regular school year of 120 hours of instruction during summer school.

DECAL – Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning- oversees a wide range of programs focused primarily on children ages birth to school age and their families including, though not limited to, the Georgia Pre-K program and administering the federal Child Care and Development Fund.

DFACS – Department of Family and Children Services

DJJ – Department of Juvenile Justice

DOE – Department of Education

DHR – Department of Human Resources

DJJ – Department of Juvenile Justice

DTAE – Department of Technical and Adult Education

EBD – Emotional and Behavioral Disorder: Disorders characterized by consistently aggressive, impulsive or withdrawn behavior (i.e. schizophrenia). EBDs impair personal, social, academic and vocational skills.

ECE – Early Childhood Education

EIP – Early Intervention Program: Programs provided from kindergarten through the fifth grade. These programs provide specialized instruction in smaller classes to students who are performing below grade level.

EL – English Learner

ELA -- English/ Language Arts

ELL – English Language Learner

EOC – End of Course assessments given in grades 9 -12 under the Georgia Milestones Assessment System.

EOCT -- End of Course Tests – End of course test given in grades 9-12. (retired by state.  Under the new Georgia Milestones Assessment System the test are called End-of-Course (EOC) assessments.

Equalization Grants: State funding to provide additional assistance to the poorer school districts. Equalization funding aims to reduce the disparities as to how much can be raised through local tax dollars between the wealthiest and poorest school districts in the state.

ERIC – Education Resources Information Center

ES – Elementary School, Grades K-5

ESEA – Elementary and Secondary Education Act – This act is also known as “No Child Left Behind.” In March 2012, Georgia and nine other states received a waiver, approved by the U.S. Department of Education, from portions of the ESEA.  This led to the state’s creation of a new school accountability measurement system to replace Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). That new system is the College and Career Ready Performance System (CCRPI).

ESOL – English to Speakers of Other Languages: Most commonly includes immersion as well as support to individuals in their native languages. Classes are typically composed of students who speak many different languages, but are not fluent in English. They may attend classes for only a portion of every day to work strictly on English skills or attend for a full day and learn both academics and English.

ESSA – Every Student Succeeds Act

ESY – Extended School Year

ETS – Educational Testing Service

Exceptional Learners: Students with an IQ in the bottom (mentally challenged) or top (gifted) three percent of the population or who have other physical or mental differences that affect learning. All exceptional learners receive special education.

FAPE – Free and Appropriate Public Education

FBA – Functional Behavioral Analysis

FBLA – Future Business Leaders of America

FCCLA – Family, Career and Community Leaders of America

FERPA – Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

FIP -- Formative Instructional Practices - formal and informal ways that teachers use to gather evidence of and respond to student learning. Formative Instructional Practices tightly align to and directly support the teacher and leader evaluation systems.

FTE – Full-time Equivalent - For more than 20 years Bulloch County Schools’ funding from the Georgia Department of Education has been based on a Quality Basic Education Act formula (QBE). The state pays each school system an amount of money for each student based on this formula. School systems earn money according to their full-time equivalent student count (FTE), recorded twice annually in October and March.

FRL – Fee and Reduced Lunch

FY – Fiscal Year – Bulloch County Schools operates on a fiscal year that runs from July 1 – June 30 each year.

GAA – Georgia Alternative Assesment

GA•AWARDS -- Georgia’s Academic and Workforce Analysis and Research Data System – Georgia’s P-20 longitudinal data system that is the anchor for Georgia’s data collection and usability to track overall student achievement and inform policy.  It is designed to efficiently link data across all agencies, beginning with early learning data from DECAL and spanning to the Georgia Department of Labor (DOL).

GACE – Georgia Advisory Council on Education

GACE -- Georgia Assessment for the Certification of Educators - The state of Georgia requires candidates for educator certification to take the GACE. The purpose of the GACE assessments is to assure that the knowledge and skills acquired by prospective Georgia educators are aligned with state and national standards for educator preparation and with state standards for the P–12 student curriculum.

GACES – Georgia Association for Counselor Education and Supervision

GACIS – Georgia Association of Curriculum and Instructional Supervisors

GACTE – Georgia Association of Colleges of Teacher Educators

GaDOE -- Georgia Department of Education

GAE – Georgia Association of Educators

GAEA – Georgia Art Education Association

GAEL – Georgia Association of Educational Leaders

GAESP – Georgia Association of Elementary School Principals

GAMSP – Georgia Association of Middle School Principals

GaPIE – Georgia Association of Partners in Education

GaPSC -- Georgia’s Professional Standards Commission – The commission in Georgia responsible for certifying and classifying all professional employees in public schools.

GAPT – Georgia Association for Pupil Transportation

GAPSS – Georgia Assessment of Performance on School Standards

GASBO – Georgia Association of School Business Officials

GASCD – Georgia Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

GASP – Georgia Association of School Psychologists

GASPA--Georgia Association of School Personnel Administrators

GASSP – Georgia Association of Secondary School Principals

GA TAPP--Georgia Teacher Alternative Preparation Program

GaVS -- Georgia Virtual School - a program of the Georgia Department of Education's Office of Technology Services. The program is SACS CASI accredited and operates in partnership with schools and parents to offer middle school and high school level courses across the state. Georgia Virtual School provides a teacher led, virtual classroom environment. Georgia Virtual School also equips students with an online media center and guidance center to support students throughout their online course experience.  

GCATT – Georgia Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technology

GCSTME – Georgia Coalition for Science, Technology and Mathematics Education

GCTM – Georgia Council of Teachers of Mathematics

GED – General Education Diploma

GELI – Georgia Early Learning Initiative

GERA – Georgia Educational Research Association

GERSC – Governor’s Education Reform Student Commission

GFIE – Georgia Foundation for the Improvement of Education

GHEA – Georgia Home Education Association

GHP – Governor’s Honors Program

GHSA – Georgia High School Association

GHSGT – Georgia High School Graduation Test: Passage required by high school students to receive a high school diploma. Covers content in mathematics, language arts, science and social studies. Performance levels are reported at the pass and pass plus levels. A score of 500 is needed to pass each section of the Graduation Test. The pass plus scale scores are 538 or greater fro English language arts and 535 or greater for math.

GHSWT – Georgia High School Writing Test: Administered to all eleventh grade students. Students are asked to produce a response to a persuasive writing prompt.

Gifted: A student who demonstrates a high degree of intellectual and/or creative ability(ies), exhibits an exceptionally high degree of motivation, and/or excels in specific academic fields, and who needs special instruction and/or special ancillary services to achieve at levels commensurate with his or her ability(ies).

GIMS – Georgia Initiative in Math and Science

GKAP – Georgia Kindergarten Assessment Program

G-KAP-R – Georgia Kindergarten Assessment Program – Revised: A test administered to kindergarten students in Georgia to determine whether they are ready for first grade. Students are evaluated in the areas of literacy, mathematics and social/emotional development through one-on-one, small group and large group instructional settings throughout the year.

GLISI – Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement

GLRS – Georgia Learning Resources System

GMAS or Georgia Milestones -- Georgia Milestones Assessment System - . Georgia’s summative assessments which include are end of course and end of grade measures of how much of the standards students learned. The Georgia Milestones replaced the CRCTs and previous EOCTs during the 2014-2015 school year.

GMEA – Georgia Music Educators Association

GMSA – Georgia Middle School Association

GOFAR -- Georgia Online Formative Assessment Resource - online portal that is part of the Pathway to Personalized Learning longitudinal data system.  It allows teachers to seek, assign, and monitor formative assessment progress of students.

GOSA -- Governor’s Office of Student Achievement

GPA – Grade Point Average

GPB – Georgia Public Broadcasting

GPEE – Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education: Founded in 1990 by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Georgia Economic Developers Association, the Partnership consists of business, education, community and government leaders who share a vision of improved education. Working to be Georgia’s foremost change agent in education, the non-profit, non-partisan organization takes lead roles in efforts to shape policy and reform education. The mission of the Partnership is to improve the academic achievement of Georgia students through research, advocacy and communication.

GPPF – Georgia Public Policy Foundation

GPS – Georgia Performance Standards

GREAT – Gang Resistance Education and Training

GSAMS – Georgia Statewide Academic and Medical System

GSBA – Georgia School Boards Association

GSCA – Georgia School Counselors Association

GSCI – Georgia School Council Institute

GSDC – Georgia Staff Development Council

GSEI – Georgia Superintendent Evaluation Instrument

GSEP – Georgia Schools of Excellence Program: Statewide program that works in conjunction with the Blue Ribbons Schools Program. The program recognizes outstanding Georgia public and private schools and nominates them for the national program.

GSFC -- Georgia Student Finance Commission

GSFSA – Georgia School Food Service Association

GSGM -- Georgia Student Growth Model - describes the change in student achievement across time.  The GSGM is based on a Student Growth Percentile (SGP), which describes a student’s growth (how much they learned over a given time period) relative to other students with similar prior achievement statewide.

GSP – Georgia Scholars Program

GSPRA – Georgia School Public Relations Association

GSSA – Georgia School Superintendents Association

GTAPP – Georgia Teacher Alternative Preparation Program: College coursework and supervised hands-on experience for individuals who hold college degrees and wish to teach grades K-12, but who have not completed a traditional teacher preparation program.

GTE – Gifted and Talented Education: Bulloch County elects to include students in the Gifted and Talented Education (GTE) classes who are not identified as gifted, but who demonstrate exceptional ability and motivation.

GTEP – Georgia Teachers Evaluation Program

GYOT -- Grow Your Own Teacher – Innovation fund focus to help districts and communities to grow the teacher and leader pipeline – especially in hard to serve districts and hard-to-staff subjects.

GYSTC – Georgia Youth Science and Technology Center

H/H – Hospital Homebound

HBCU-- Historically Black Colleges and Universities

HEA – Higher Education Act

HEIR – Home Education Information Resource

Highly Qualified Teacher: A teacher is considered Highly Qualified when he or she meets the requirements of (1) obtaining an academic minimum of a bachelor’s degree, (2) obtaining a full state certification or licensure, and (3) formally demonstrates a high level of competency in the subject taught.

HOA – Hands on Atlanta

HOPE – Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally: Funded by the Georgia Lottery, the HOPE program provides qualified Georgia students with tuition assistance in diploma, certificate or degree programs at any public or private college, university or technical institution in the state. To qualify, students must earn a 3.0 GPA in high school, and they must maintain a 3.0 in college to keep the scholarship.

HOTS – Higher Order Thinking Skills

HS – High School, Grades 9-12

IB – International Baccalaureate

IDEA – Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: A law passed in 1990 that requires public schools to provide a free and appropriate education to disabled school-aged children ages three through 21.

IEE – Independent Educational Evaluation

IEP – Individualized Education Plan: A plan developed by a student’s parent and teachers that outlines the student’s program of study and the particular education services the child receives.

IIS -- Instructional improvement system – a longitudinal data requirement of RT3 designed to enhance the state’s ability to effectively manage, use, and analyze education data to support instruction.  In Georgia, the IIS is called the Path to Personalized Learning.

Inclusion: Term used when special education or ESOL students receive educational services in a general education classroom setting. The students are included in the regular education program rather than being served in individual education classes.

In-Service Workshop: Workshops attended by teachers on various topics pertaining to education.

INTASC – Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium

IQ – Intelligence Quotient

ISS – In School Suspension: An alternative to Out-Of-School Suspension for less severe rule infractions. The goal of ISS is to remove students from interactions with their peers. Students are given specific assignments aimed at improving their achievement levels.

ITBS – Iowa Test of Basic Skills: Achievements tests given to students throughout the country. Scores usually are reported as percentiles, with scores in the fiftieth percentile being the national norm

IU – Instructional Unit

K – Kindergarten

K-12 – Kindergarten through Grade 12

LAPS – Leader Assessment on Performance Standards

LAS -- Lowest achieving schools – schools performing in the bottom 5 percent on student achievement measures

LD – Learning Disability: A term used in special education to describe a disorder in one of the basic psychological processes. These students may have difficulty in listening, thinking, speaking, writing, spelling or doing mathematical calculations.

LDS -- Longitudinal data system - the foundation of the Path to Personalized Learning longitudinal data system that provides longitudinal data and analysis to allow teachers to differentiate instruction among their students.

LEA – Local Education Agency

LEM -- Leader Effectiveness Measure - The final score generated by the Leader Keys Effectiveness System.  It consists of two parts – a survey of instructional practice and student growth.

LEP – Limited English Proficient

LKES -- Leader Keys Effectiveness System – Evaluation/ assessment systems designed for school leaders, primarily principals.

LRE – Least Restrictive Environment

Magnet School: A school with strong emphasis in a particular subject area (i.e. music, science, drama, math). Students may be selected through an application process instead of being assigned based on residence.

Mainstreaming: Moving a special education student from a special environment into the regular school environment.

MCR – Modified Compliance Review

MDR – Manifestation Determination Review

MGWA – Middle Grades Writing Assessment

MIMH – Mildly Mentally Handicapped

MID – Mildly Intellectually Disabled

MOD – Moderately Intellectually Disabled

MOMH – Moderately Mentally Handicapped

MS – Middle School, Grades 6-8

NAEP – National Assessment of Educational Progress (National Report Card): Often referred to as the National Report Card. National testing program administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Reading and mathematics tests are given to fourth, eighth, and twelfth grade students nationwide. NAEP reports student performance as average scale scores and by achievement level. Average scale scores reflect the performance of test takers both as a whole and in groups (i.e. by gender, race, etc.). NAEP ahs three achievement levels: basic (partial mastery), proficient (solid academic performance) and advance (superior academic performance).

NAES – National Alliance for Effective Schools

NAESP – National Association of Elementary School Principals

NASBE – National Association of States Boards of Education

NASDC – New American Schools Development Corporation

NASSP – National Association of Secondary School Principals

NBC – National Board Certification: Rigorous program for classroom teachers administered by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards that includes performance-based assessments and peer review. The state and some local school systems reward National Board Certified teachers with additional pay. NBC takes approximately a year to complete and is the top national certification for educators.

NBCC – National Board for Certified Counselors

NBPTS – National Board of Professional Teaching Standards: A nonprofit organization created in 1987 to advance education reform and establish high standards for teachers. NBPTS administers the National Board Certification program to assess and certify teachers in accordance with these standards.

NCATE – National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education

NCES – National Center for Education Statistics

NCLB -- No Child Left Behind: A federal law passed under the George W. Bush administration. NCLB represents legislation that attempts to accomplish standards-based education reform. The law reauthorized federal programs meant to hold primary and secondary schools measurably accountable to higher standards

NCTQ -- National Council on Teacher Quality

NEA – National Education Association

NEGP – National Education Goals Panel

NGA -- National Governor’s Association

NGSP – Next Generation Schools Project: An initiative of the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education. It is a grassroots effort that encourages local communities to organize themselves to dramatically improve their local schools. For 10 years, schools receive annual grants to give them necessary resources for innovations. In 2002, schools began to receive grants to change the school calendar from the traditional 180 days to a more balanced calendar that features strong intercessions for remediation and enrichment activities.

NIH – National Institutes of Health

NRT – Norm-Referenced Test

NSBA – National School Boards Association

NSF – National Science Foundation

NSPRA – National School Public Relations Association

NTE – National Teachers’ Examination

O.C.G.A – Official Code of Georgia

OCR – Office of Civil Rights

OEA – Office of Educational Accountability

OERI – Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education

OHI – Other Health Impaired

OI – Orthopedically Impaired

OSA – Office of Student Achievement: Formerly known as the Office of Education Accountability (OEA), was established to improve student achievement and school completion in Georgia. The OSA will produce annual accountability report cards for K-12 public schools and post-secondary education institutions with the implementation of the reform.

OSR – Office of School Readiness

OSS – Out-of-School Suspension

OT – Occupational Therapy

PAGE – Professional Association of Georgia Educators

PARCC -- Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers – a group of states working together to develop a set of common core aligned assessments that measure whether students are on track to be successful in college and their careers.  Georgia withdrew from the PARCC consortium in 2013.

PBIS – Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports

Per-pupil Expenditures: Money spent on each student in a given school district. Because public schools are financed in part by local property taxes, there is a disparity in per-pupil expenditures across the state.

PDD – Pervasive Developmental Disorder

PDP – Professional Development Plan

PDK – Phi Delta Kappa

PFP – Pay for Performance

PID – Profoundly Intellectually Disabled

PLOP – Present Level of Performance

POI – Pyramid of Intervention: A conceptual framework developed by the Georgia Department of Education that provides a common language and focus regarding instructional practices and interventions. The pyramid is set up in levels or tiers with each providing general guidelines of what students should be receiving in their instructional setting.

• Tier 1: ALL students are receiving differentiated instruction and frequent progress monitoring in their current standards-based classroom.
• Tier 2: Students struggling in Tier 1 are provided more focused interventions through methods that differ from Tier 1 and that provide more frequent monitoring.
• Tier 3: Through the student support teams process, students that continue to be unsuccessful are given more individually-targeted instruction in addition to the Tier 1 & 2 strategies.
• Tier 4: Students are entered into a specialized learning program to help provide for their instructional needs.

PPC – Professional Practices Commission

PPEM -- Preparation Program Effectiveness Measure- A single metric will be used to classify educator preparation programs in one of four performance levels: exemplary, effective, at-risk of low performing, or low performing.

Pre-K – Pre-Kindergarten – Program for four-year-old children funded by state.

Professional Learning: A whole range of activities aimed at improving teaching by providing teachers with necessary skills training and information. Professional development activities range from formal courses and seminars to teacher mentoring and collaboration.

PSAT – Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test: A practice test for students taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). The PSAT is designed to help students identify academic strengths and weaknesses. Since 1997, state funds have paid for PSAT administration to all tenth grade students in Georgia’s public schools.

PSC – Professional Standards Commission: The agency responsible for certifying teachers, school personnel and administrators in the State of Georgia.

PSO – Postsecondary Options Program

PT – Physical Therapy

PTA – Parent Teacher Association

PTO Parent Teacher Organization

PTSA – Parent Teacher Student Association

PTSO – Parent Teacher Student Organization

QBE – Quality Basic Education: For more than 20 years Bulloch County Schools’ funding from the Georgia Department of Education has been based on a Quality Basic Education Act formula (QBE). The state pays each school system an amount of money for each student based on this formula. School systems earn money according to their full-time equivalent student count (FTE), recorded twice annually in October and March.  For example, in Fiscal Year 2013, the basis for our QBE formula allotment was $2,744.80, which is the revenue earned from the state for one regular high school FTE (full-time equivalent student). This amount was then “weighted” and added to in order to reflect any special needs of students and to allow for differences in cost between grade levels and classes (i.e. students who receive special education or limited English proficiency earn more money for the system because it costs more to educate students in these programs due to the mandates associated with them.  Also a high school vocational lab class earns more funding than a regular high school class.).

There are five key “foundation formula” calculation areas that determine our QBE allotment:  QBE base formula earnings, local fair share, austerity reduction, equalization, and transportation. These areas allow our school system to earn funds from the state for public education through a partnership involving state and local revenues.

These areas are determined in the spring of each year after the Georgia General Assembly has completed its annual session. The allotment sheet for the subsequent fiscal year is provided to all Local Units of Administration (LUAs), in our case the Bulloch County Board of Education.  This allotment sheet indicates the amount of QBE state funding that is forthcoming prior to any mid-term adjustment. The data from the allotment sheet initially are calculated by taking the average of the Full-Time Equivalent Students (FTE) counts times the base cost per FTE times the program weights, adjusted for direct and indirect costs and adjusted for teacher training and experience.

There are 19 individual QBE programs classified within two broad program areas, General and Career Education Programs and Special Education. Since different programs vary in cost of operation, each of the instructional programs is assigned a different program weight.  These weights reflect the costs of teachers, aides and other instructional personnel; instructional materials; facility maintenance and operations; media center personnel and materials; school and central office administration and staff development.

As a basic local funding commitment for education, all Georgia’s boards of education are required to levy the equivalent of at least five mills in property taxes on their county’s 40 percent equalized property tax digest. Bulloch County Schools’ total earnings from QBE are then reduced by the current year’s local fair share.  All districts then have revenues equal to the “local five-mill share” (LFMS) deducted from their total QBE earnings, and the state pays the balance of the earnings. In the event that the combined local fair share for all school systems exceeds 20 percent of the sum of the statewide QBE formula earnings, then the local fair share is reduced by district in a pro-rata fashion, ranking all 180 school systems according to property wealth per student. Property taxes make up the primary source of revenue for local school systems. These funds are used for the operating budget, whereas Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) funds can be used for capital expenditures like buildings and technology, but not salaries and other operating expenses.

QCC – Quality Core Curriculum: State Standards prior to the Georgia Performance Standards and Common Core Georgia Performance Standards.

RBOC – Regional Education Service Agency Board of Control

Reconstitution: Process through which the state oversees a low performing school (school receiving Needs Improvement designation on a school report card for two or more consecutive years) and directs the duties of the school principal until school performance improves.

REP – Regional Education Program

RESAs -- Regional Education Support Agencies: State supported agencies charged with helping  local school systems meet their educational needs through the sharing of services across school system lines. All RESAs are required to provide services in research and planning, staff development, curriculum and instruction, assessment and evaluation, technology, health, and school improvement.

RED -- Robotics and Engineering Design – curriculums developed by CEISMC, and offered as part of the middle CTAE offerings.  This curriculum combines not only robotics and engineering, but also includes elements of 3D modeling, manufacturing, physical science, and math.

RT3 -- Race to the Top – A $4.35 billion education fund established by the federal government to support the implementation of education reform efforts.

RTI – Response to Intervention

RYDC – Regional Youth Detention Center

SACS – Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.  Now known as AdvancED.  The entity that reviews and accredits school systems every five years.

SAT – Scholastic Aptitude Test: Standardized test taken by college-bound students to gain admission to College. The SAT tests students’ verbal and mathematical reasoning ability.

SAYRE – Southeastern Association for Year-Round Education

SBD – Severe Behavior Disorder

SBOE -- Georgia State Board of Education

School Choice: Allows parents to enroll their children in the school of their choice.

SDD – Significant Developmental Delay

SDRC – State Data and Research Center

SDU – Staff Development Unit

SEA – State Education Agency

SEBD – Severe Emotional/Behavioral Disorder

Section 504: Federal law that prohibits discrimination against disabled students.

SGP -- Student Growth Percentile - Describes a student’s growth (how much they learned over a given time period) relative to other students with similar prior achievement statewide. Used in Georgia’s Student Growth Model.

SI – Speech Impaired

SIA – Special Instructional Assistance: A state funded program for kindergarten, first and second grade at-risk students. It provides additional funding to the regular instructional program to reduce class size, purchase additional teaching materials and involve parents in their children’s education.

SID – Severely Intellectually Disabled

SIG -- School Improvement Grant - grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Education to state education agencies under the NCLB act focused on improving low achieving schools.

SIS – Student Information System

SLD – Specific Learning Disability

SLOs -- Student Learning Objectives – for non-tested subjects, SLOs describe what students are expected to learn in a given academic year as measured by a pre-assessment and post-assessment.

SLP – Speech Language Pathologist

SMCP – System Media Contact Person

Social Promotion: Practice of allowing students who have failed to meet performance standards and academic requirements to pass on to the next grade with their peers instead of completing or satisfying the requirements. Social promotion ended in Georgia in the 2003-2003 school year for grade three, in 2004-2005 for grade five and in 2005-2006 for grade eight.

SOE – School of Excellence

SOP – Summary of Performance

SPAI – Speech Pathologist Assessment Instrument

Special Education: Special instruction for mentally challenged or gifted students.

Special Needs: A student who has disabilities or is at the risk of developing disabilities that may require special education services.

SRC – Southern Regional Council

SREB – Southern Regional Education Board

SRO – School Resource Officer

SSS – Student Support Service

SST – Student Support Teams - a problem-solving process in every Georgia school. Its purpose is to find ways around roadblocks to success for any student referred to it. They come into play during the Pyramid of Intervention process and work to find the student support services that best match what a student needs to learn.

SSW – School Social Worker

STEM -- Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

STW – School-to-Work

SWSS – Strategic Waivers School System (formerly known as Investing in Edcuation Excellence IE2) A SWSS/IE2 System is a local school district that operates under the terms of an SWSS/IE2 contract between the State Board of Education and the local Board of Education. The system receives flexibility in the form of waivers of certain state laws, rules and guidelines in exchange for greater accountability for increased student performance.

SWSS/IE2 contracts are intended to provide local school districts with the flexibility they need to increase student achievement. SWSS is one of three flexibility options from which school systems must choose according to a state law that took effect July 2015. Districts that chose the SWSS/IE2 flexibility option will be known as Strategic Waivers School Systems (SWSS/IE2). Bulloch County Schools is applying to the state to be this type of system.

SYDC – State Youth Development Campus

TANF – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: The monthly cash assistance program for poor families with children under age 18.

TAP – Test of Achievement and Proficiency

TBI – Traumatic Brain Injury

TCSG -- Technical College System of Georgia

TCT – Teacher Certification Test

TEM -- Teacher Effectiveness Measure – The final score generated by the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System.  It consists of two parts – a survey of instructional practice and student growth.

TESOL – Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

TFA -- Teach for America - an alternative certification program that recruits recent college graduates to teach for two years in an urban or rural school system.  

TIMSS – Third International Math and Science Study

Title I: A federally funded program for K-12 at-risk students that provides additional help on the basic skills. Title I is the largest federal aid program for elementary and secondary schools. The program provides money to school systems based on the number of low-income families in each district.

Title II: A federally funded program that provides assistance to state and local educational agencies and institutions of higher education with teacher education programs. Title II funds programs to improve teaching and learning, reform teacher preparation and certification standards and to develop better performance-based assessment and professional development strategies.

Title VI: Part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin in programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance, including schools. Title VI prohibits the denial of equal access to education to students with limited proficiency in English.

Title VII: A federal program designed to improve the English proficiency of bilingual students.

Title IX: Law barring gender discrimination in education facilities that receive federal funds. Most Title IX cases filed against K-12 schools involve sex equity in athletic programs.

TKES -- Teacher Keys Effectiveness System - Teacher evaluation/ effectiveness system used to distinguish between good teachers, great teachers, and ineffective ones, the primary focus of the teacher effectiveness system is to help improve instruction and to better design professional development activities to meet teacher needs.

TOEFL – Test of English as a Foreign Language

TOTY – Teacher of the Year

TNTP -- The New Teacher Project - an alternative certification program that provides intensive education training to college graduates and provides ongoing support to their teachers during their first years in the classroom.

Tracking: The practice of dividing students into class size groups, which exist for the major part of the school day or year, based on the student’s perceived ability or prior achievement and then designing and delivering instruction to each group.

Transition Plan: Plan separate from the IEP that documents goals for a special education student to aid him or her in making the transition from school to work.

TRSGA – Teachers Retirement System of Georgia

TSS – Teacher Support Specialist

UGS -- University System of Georgia

U.S.  DOE -- U.S Department of Education

Values Education: The process of providing opportunities for all students to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes about the following values specified by the Georgia Board of Education: citizenship, respect for others and respect for self.

VI -- Visually Impaired

Voucher: A state allocation of money given to parents to allow their children to attend a school of the parent’s choice, either public or private. Georgia does not allow vouchers.

Zero Tolerance: Policies that mandate predetermined consequences or punishments for a specific offense regardless of the circumstances surrounding it.