The United States Department of Education (USED) on Friday approved Georgia’s waiver of accountability requirements – including having to produce a College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) summary for the state, school districts, and schools. While USED did not approve Georgia’s request to waive state assessments altogether for the 2020-21 school year, which means the Georgia Milestones are required to be administered this spring, but the results will not be summarized by school or district into a CCRPI score.
“I commend USED for approving Georgia’s waiver for accountability requirements,” said Governor Brian P. Kemp. “Our students and teachers have worked incredibly hard during this unprecedented time and school systems should not be punished for an unexpected school year. Georgia is a state that continues to put our students and teachers first. We will be using test scores as a way to help our students – not as a punitive measure.”
State School Superintendent Richard Woods added, “While I still believe strongly that the middle of a global pandemic is no time for high-stakes tests – especially high-stakes tests that must be administered in-person – classroom teachers and building administrators can hopefully get some relief since the test results of students this year will be used purely as a gauge of student learning rather than a summative CCRPI score.”
Since the onset of the pandemic, Superintendent Woods and the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) have been committed to ‘compassion over compliance”. When COVID-19 cases started appearing in our schools, Georgia was one of the first states in the nation to suspend testing and accountability, leading the way for USED to grant blanket testing and accountability waivers to states across the nation.