On August 10^th the Georgia Department of Education announced that 12 schools, all from separate congressional districts, would be the recipients of the CAPS grant during the 2006-2007 school year.  This competitive seed grant program will fund the implementation of a Comprehensive Academic Performance System (CAPS) that unites the use of curriculum standards alignment, formative assessment, differentiated instruction, parent involvement, and public accountability.

The grant is based on the past successes of a group of very progressive Georgia school districts using the MAGIC model.  They worked diligently with members of the Governor’s staff, State Legislators, and the Georgia Department of Education Administrators, to make this very unique opportunity a reality.  Governor Sonny Perdue’s Investing in Educational Excellence (IE2)Task Force was impressed by the best practices being used by these districts and made a recommendation to the Governor that highlighted this accountability model being “home grown” in districts around Georgia

The CAPS model exemplifies the type of scorecard that the Governor believes will allow teachers, parents, administrators, and the community to identify and act quickly on student achievement areas in need of improvement. The success of the model was so compelling that, in the 2006 legislative session, Governor Sonny Perdue allocated resources for a web-based accountability system demonstration project that will assist schools in increasing student achievement by empowering teachers and parents with detailed data about student performance.

To carry out this mission, the CAPS grant was established to fund two components of the model - the hiring of full-time instructional coaches and funds to offset the costs of a technology interface.