DeShonda Wolfe (Sophia Bobo/The Oglethorpe Echo)
Oglethorpe County Schools don’t have a consistent curriculum assessment tool for sixth through 12th grade English language arts (ELA), but that could be changing soon.
DeShonda Wolfe, an English teacher at Oglethorpe County High School, said she’s glad the Board of Education might purchase one.
“We believe that CommonLit is the answer,” Wolfe said.
The BOE will consider buying CommonLit for $6,850 at its Sept. 8 meeting after approving the budget item at the Aug. 25 work session.
Wolfe said she came to the work session because she was excited the assessment program was on the agenda.
“CommonLit is an ELA all-around program that supports all levels of learners, and it gives us an opportunity to capture their growth from middle school through 12th grade to see what, where they are, how are they performing on the Georgia standards,” Wolfe said.
Superintendent Phillip Powell said the program is a small expenditure in comparison to its overall effectiveness. The district hasn’t purchased ELA assessments in the past, so teachers have been using their own.
“After we met with all of our teachers throughout the district, teacher teams, one of the big things that our ELA teachers said in grades six through 12 is they don’t have a way to align,” Powell said. “This just gives them an opportunity to assess uniformly throughout classrooms.”
According to the 2025 Georgia School Grades Report Milestone scores, Oglethorpe County High School scores showed just 34.4% of students are proficient or above in English compared to the state at 42%. At the middle school, 40.3% of students were proficient or above in English compared to the state at 42.9%.
Wolfe has been pushing for this since 2020. She and her colleagues have been using the free version and have found that more is needed in order to assess the students' overall growth.
She conducted her doctoral research on this topic at Kennesaw State University. Wolfe also said the school district has provided sessions to learn what teachers need in the classroom.
“That is what we appreciate as well, that they provided listening sessions for teachers and that is amazing, to have an actual, feel like we have a voice and then follow through happens,” Wolfe said.
Sophia Bobo. The Oglethorpe Echo.