{"id":18634,"date":"2020-09-24T22:01:40","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T02:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=18634"},"modified":"2020-11-20T08:39:46","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T13:39:46","slug":"georgias-year-end-tests-may-only-count-for-0-01-of-final-grade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=18634","title":{"rendered":"Georgia’s year-end tests may only count for 0.01% of final grade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Georgia\u2019s top school official aims to make year-end standardized tests count \u201cessentially zero\u201d toward students\u2019 final grades in the 2020-21 school year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State School Superintendent Richard Woods is also poised to recommend waiving performance consequences for teachers tied to the annual Georgia Milestones exams and let local schools decide when to administer the year-end tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed changes follow the refusal earlier this month by federal education officials<\/a> to grant Georgia a waiver to scrap standardized tests this year during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woods immediately pledged to water down the tests in defiance and urged that students and teachers \u201cnot worry about the tests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next week, Woods plans to recommend the state Board of Education approve lowering the 20% course grade weight that the tests normally carry to 0.01% \u2014 or \u201cessentially zero\u201d since state law prevents the tests\u2019 weight from being 0%, according to a news release from the state Department of Education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGeorgia will abide by federal law, but we are not going to layer additional stress and burden onto our students and teachers during this time,\u201d Woods said in a statement. \u201cIn this environment, these tests are not valid or reliable measures of academic progress or achievement, and we are taking all possible steps at the state level to reduce their high-stakes impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board\u2019s next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a letter sent Sept. 3, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told Georgia school officials they \u201cshould not anticipate\u201d receiving approval to scrap the annual assessments this year, citing the need to maintain performance standards and data-tracking for student achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Georgia officials submitted the testing waiver request in June to abstain from year-end tests as the state\u2019s roughly 2,800 public schools grapple with resuming classes online and in-person amid the virus. The waiver request drew broad support from students, parents, teachers and other Georgians who were recently surveyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, Woods reiterated his strong opposition to DeVos\u2019 decision on the testing waiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remain disappointed and disheartened by the federal directive to administer high-stakes tests in a pandemic,\u201d Woods said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Georgia Association of Educators backed Woods\u2019 move to reduce testing<\/a> grade weights and urged Gov. Brian Kemp to sign an executive order allowing education officials to relax the performance consequences for teachers tied to the tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis action would not eliminate accountability for teachers and administrators, but rather promote shared accountability and mutual support amongst educators, families and the community to ensure students emerge from this crisis physically, socially, emotionally and academically healthy,\u201d said the association\u2019s president, Lisa Morgan.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Georgia\u2019s top school official aims to make year-end standardized tests count \u201cessentially zero\u201d toward students\u2019 final grades in the 2020-21 school year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. State School Superintendent Richard Woods is also poised to recommend waiving performance consequences for teachers tied to the annual Georgia Milestones exams and let local schools decide when to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[8481,8480,8506,8474],"class_list":["post-18634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-education","tag-sun","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}