Category Archives: Standardized Testing

Stan Jester
Board Of Education
District 1

This [message] serves to provide a context of the measures the District takes to plan a school calendar and provide equitable attention, application, and solutions for accommodating students from various religious backgrounds.
In accordance with Board Policies AEA and AEA-R, the Calendar Committee convened in September 2014 to develop the 2015-2016 school calendar recommendation. The Calendar Committee was comprised of a variety of stakeholder groups from Regions I-V, including students, parents, community/business partners, school-level staff, and district-level advisors. The diverse stakeholder group represented different nationalities and faiths.
During the work sessions in September, the Calendar Committee researched and discussed the number of days per year, number of days per semester, inclement weather or emergency days, religious observances, spring holidays, testing windows, and other metro area school districts’ calendars. The committee members were divided into two work groups for the purpose of developing a minimum of two calendar options. Each group developed one calendar option and presented the draft to the full Calendar Committee to identify similarities and differences. The committee members discussed the possible impact on families and made revisions.
Also, the members decided to obtain stakeholder input through a survey/questionnaire instead of a vote. The online calendar survey opened for public feedback on October 10, 2014 and closed October 20, 2014. The total number of surveys completed was 6020. At the final official meeting on Tuesday, October 28, 2014, the members reviewed the feedback from stakeholders and made the final recommendation to the Superintendent.
Once the Board of Education approved the 2015-2016 school calendar and the Georgia Department of Education released the official 2015-2016 testing schedule, the Department of Research, Assessments, and Grants developed the District’s testing calendar. The Department of Research, Assessments, and Grants considered the religious observances identified below, feedback received from the school calendar survey, dialogue with elementary principals, and noted findings in the gifted audit report to develop the extensive yearly calendar.

• Board approved 2015-2016 Calendar:
• 2015-2015 Testing Calendar

The testing calendar specifies that the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) and Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) will be administered September 9-25, 2015. The CogAT and ITBS are standardized tests used in the gifted identification process. In an effort to identify gifted eligible students, the CogAT and ITBS will be administered in September instead of October. The score reports will arrive earlier, thereby allowing schools to continue the gifted identification process with the necessary data in a timely fashion.
Although the published time frame for the ITBS is ten days, only six days are needed to administer the ITBS and four days are allocated as make-up days. Since the testing window includes four make-up days for students who miss a component of the ITBS, a parent/guardian should communicate the absence with the local school to ensure that the child has the opportunity to make-up the missed component because of an excused religious observance. Please note that the ITBS testing window impacts students who observe Rosh Hashanah, Ganesh Chaturthi, Day of Arafat, Yom Kippur, Madon, and Eid-ul-Adha.

Five days are allocated for ITBS testing in 3rd, 5th, and 7th grades and six days for 1st grade. Schools may conduct make-up sessions on the designated days or in the afternoon immediately following the morning administration.
Dr. R. Stephen Green, Superintendent
DeKalb County School District
2015-2016 Religious Holidays (Defined by DeKalb Schools)

Date	Holiday	Religion
Sun-Tues. – Sept. 13-15, 2015	Rosh Hashanah	Judaism
Thurs. – Sept. 17, 2015	Ganesh Chaturthi	Hindu
Tues. – Sept. 22, 2015	Day of Arafat	Islam
Tues. – Wed. Sept. 22-23, 2015	Yom Kippur	Judaism
Wed. – Sept. 23, 2015	Madon	Pagan
Wed. – Sat. Sept. 23-24, 2015	Eid-ul-Adha	Islam
Sun. – Tues. Sept. 27-29, 2015	Sukkot	Judaism
Wed. – Sun. Sept. 30-Oct. 4, 2015	Sukkot	Judaism
Tues. – Wed. Oct. 13-21, 2015	Navrati	Hinduism
Fri. – March 25, 2016	Good Friday	Orthodox Christian
Sun. – March 27, 2016	Easter	Orthodox Christian
Thurs. Apr. 14, 2016	Baisakhi	Hindu
Thurs. Apr. 21, 2016	Ridvan	Baha’i
Fri. – Sun. Apr. 25-28, 2016	Passover	Judaism
Mon. – Thurs. Apr. 25-28, 2016	Passover	Judaism
Thurs.- Sat. Apr. 28-30, 2016	Passover	Judaism
Fri. – Apr. 29, 2016	Great Friday	Orthodox Christian
Fri. – Sat. May 6-7, 2016	Lag B’Omer	Judaism
Tues. May 24, 2016	Pentecost	Christian