The State Board of Education meetings held on June 14th and 15th heard two rule changes that will impact students in grades K-12 this upcoming school year. The first rule was focused on waiving the promotion, placements, and retention rule for the Georgia Milestones Math Assessments for students in grades 5 and 8. The second rule amendment would change the minimum percentage requirement of the Georgia Milestone End-of-Course Algebra EOC assessment score in the state of Georgia from 20 percent to 10 percent.
According to the presentation by Deputy Superintendent of Policy, Flexibility, and External Affairs Tiffany Taylor, the waiver was needed as the 2023- 2024 school year marks the first operational administration of the updated Ga Milestone tests with new standards for mathematics. This waiver would come as the Georgia Department of Education works to develop cut scores for the new assessments and examines the new data during the summer of 2024 after the first tests are administered. This is not the first time where Georgia has waived how much EOCs and Milestones count, the most recent one done during the COVID-19 pandemic when Richard Woods recommended a .01% course grade weight for exams during the 2020-2021 school year.
However, even though precedent has been set, many State Board members had questions and concerns about rigor, high-stakes testing, and more.
“I thought we wanted to raise expectations not lower requirement,” Board member Helen Rice from the Third Congressional District remarked. “And I have to share a lot of my superintendents I talk with were fine with the 20% and some even said it could be 25.”
The Second Congressional Representative, “William “Frank” Griffin, said, “…Ten percent is still substantial, and I am pretty much going to be for any opportunity we have to allow local control to reign in these particular areas. I support this effort.”
If these rule changes are adopted, school systems will have to change their policies and have the option to keep the end-of-course tests at 20%.
The rule change is open to public comment for the next 30 days.
As a retired educator, we are doing a huge disservice to our students if we continue to lower expectations. One only has to look how we stack up against other states and with other nations using quantifiable data and ask, “Why would we continue on a path to rank even lower than where we are now?”
I think it should been done away with because it hurts the students. They could be a A – B student all year but the milestone they may not pass it then they have to take classes again or be retained.