Barge served as Georgia State Superintendent of Schools from 2011 to 2015.

Common Core

On July 8, 2010, the Georgia Board of Education adopted Common Core or Common Core State Standards Initiative, an American education initiative that outlines quantifiable benchmarks in English and mathematics at each grade level from kindergarten through high school. When Barge took over as superintendent in January 2011, he assumed partial responsibility for developing a plan for realizing the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS) adopted under the leadership of his predecessor. The "Georgia Milestones Assessment System" was hence designed to bring Georgia in line with the raised educational standards coordinated by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers. The Milestones Assessment System consists of various final exams for specific courses worth 20 percent of a student’s grade; reading and math exam scores for third, fifth and eight graders will factor heavily in whether they advance to the next grade.

To clear the way for the state to implement the new nationally-aligned standards and achievement metrics, the Milestones System will supersede Georgia's existing achievement testing regime--anchored by the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) for grades 3-8 and the End of Course Tests (EOCT) administered to high school students--effective in the 2014-2015 school year. The changes are scheduled to arrive amid transition in the superintendent's office, since Barge forwent a bid for re-election in 2014 to run for governor and must retire his current position upon the expiry of his first term in January 2015. Whomever is elected to replace Barge will inherit authority over the Georgia Department of Education's implementation of the Milestones System, as well as accountability for any apparent decline in student achievement following the switch to the more challenging Milestones testing regime. Barge has warned that the adjustment may yield disappointing scores in comparison with those of past CRCTs and EOCTs, however he stressed the importance of finding a "new and more realistic baseline of student performance" which can be used to help Georgia schools meet heightened national standards.