Georgia students will get a break from the high-stakes nature of the state tests in math, but it will be short-lived.
The state education board’s vote Thursday to waive the use of math Milestones test scores for consequential decisions next school year comes as the Georgia Department of Education implements new tests.
The new math tests are supposed to align with new math standards. They were approved two years ago, but schools needed time to retrain teachers and the state needed time to write new tests. So they’ll be administered for the first time next winter and spring.
State officials will then study the results and calculate the “cut” scores that will place students at one of four performance levels, from beginning to distinguished.
Meanwhile, the scores shouldn’t be used in calculating high school course grades next school year, said Allison Timberlake, who oversees testing for the state. She told the Georgia Board of Education that the associated research will delay the release of the scores, so schools won’t get them in time for promotion and retention decisions in fifth and eighth grades, the only grades when the math scores are used for those decisions.
“We always administer the assessments first to get the student data on how students perform, then we’ll have a standard setting meeting next summer,” Timberlake said at a board work session Wednesday. The board will have to approve that work before the scores can be released to school districts, she said.
The board approved the waiver at its meeting Thursday.
The board also voted to gather public comment on another Milestones proposal. The measure would reduce the weight of high school Milestones scores on course grades in all tested subjects, from the current 20% to a minimum of 10%.
The proposal provoked disagreement among board members.
Some felt it amounted to a “watering down” of rigor for students, who might feel less pressure to take the tests seriously. Others said the stakes are too high currently, since bombing a test could drop a student’s GPA below the threshold for the HOPE Scholarship.
At least one board member doesn’t think the tests add much value.
“I don’t think the end-of-course test is a good measure of whether or not a student has learned material for the year,” said Jason Downey, the board chairman.
Passage of the agenda item Thursday doesn’t mean the test-weight reduction will be approved. But it did authorize the state Education Department to post the proposal for comment on its “rulemaking” web page. The board can use the public comments when considering the proposal at an upcoming meeting. Comments can be sent by email to policy@doe.k12.ga.us or by calling 800-311-3627 by July 17.
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