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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?