Across Georgia this testing season, schools reported technology-related interruptions of online testing, especially Fulton County where widespread outages marred testing. On April 20th, the state experienced widespread issues causing 10 out of 108 DeKalb elementary and middle schools to have to stop and resume online testing the next day.
DeKalb has had no other widespread online testing issues – all DeKalb students who tested online have successfully been able to complete all of their assessments. High School End-of-Course assessments began on May 2nd with no school-wide outages. All DeKalb high school students have been able to complete their online assessments, as scheduled.
Earlier this month the State Board of Education granted a waiver for the second year in a row of promotion, placement, and retention requirements tied to the 2016 administration of the Georgia Milestones End of Grade (EOG) tests.
State law requires that 3rd grade students earn an At/Above Grade Level designation in reading to be promoted to 4th grade. In 5th and 8th grade, state law requires that students earn an At/Above Grade Level designation in reading, as well as score in the Developing Learner achievement level or above in mathematics to be promoted to the next grade. These are the promotion, placement, and retention requirements being waived for the 2016 EOG administration. Some local school systems have additional promotion criteria, and this waiver will not preclude school districts from applying local policies and protocols for promotion and retention decisions for individual students.
Pending the approval of the Educator Effectiveness Committee, student growth will be held harmless for the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES)/Leader Keys Effectiveness System (LKES) this year, and will not count next year with the revised evaluation system. The Teacher Assessment on Performance Standards (TAPS) component of the TKES and the Leader Assessment on Performance Standards (LAPS) component of the LKES will continue to be the sole measure used to determine the performance rating of teachers of record and leaders reported by employing school systems and charter schools to the GaPSC for certification purposes.
Related Posts and Docs
2015 Milestones Results – School Rankings
Opting Out of the Georgia Milestones Tests (Apr 2016) – Last year was the first year for the new state standardized test, the Georgia Milestones. On Tuesday DeKalb elementary and middle school students will begin 3 weeks of Georgia Milestones testing.
Student Promotion – Whose Decision Is It? (Sept 2014) – Who should decide which students will be promoted and which students will be held back? The state, county, school council, principal, teacher, parent … what do you think?
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
With all these waivers and not being held harmless on based on the results of these tests I hope they spread that wealth to the students who didn’t do very well and cost 20% of their grade.
Stan,
Have you talked to students, teachers, or parents? You might discover that all students did not successfully complete their paper or online assessments.
DeKalbTeacher, I have talked to many students, parents, teachers, and a couple principals. Obviously I can’t verify all 102,000 students by myself. The administration tells me “all DeKalb students who tested online have successfully been able to complete all of their assessments”. Please let me know if you believe that’s not the case.
Hey Stan,
Much to our surprise my daughter has a grade of “I” for her ELA 9th grade milestones on her Infinite Campus. What could this possibly be? Are we waiting for scores or something? I hadn’t heard from her teacher, her principal or the school district at all. I was under the assumption that all scores were due to the school by last Monday.
Milestones glitches result in delays for some final grades. About 3,000 Gwinnett County middle and high school students will not know their final grades in some courses until at least next week because of delays getting results, according to the AJC. I would expect DCSD to be similarly situated.
Did dcsd not know there were missing test scores? I shouldn’t have had to wonder what the I meant or why I didnt know. Communication.
DHS NEWS – Some EOC Scores Delayed – Dear Parents, We have not received all of our End of Course Assessment (EOCA) Scores back yet. Literature 9 is still out, and we are still awaiting scores for some Algebra and Geometry EOCAs. We expect these scores to arrive early this week. Thank you for your patience. Have a great summer! –Mr. Jameson