CTB/McGraw-Hill, one of US's leading educational assessment partners, has announced that the Georgia Department of Education (GDOE) has selected the company to develop a new customised state assessment for all Georgia students. The project will replace the state's current Criterion-Referenced Competency Test and End of Course Tests with the new assessment which will be called Georgia Milestones Assessment System (Georgia Milestones) beginning in the 2015 school year and will work to transition all Georgia tests online by 2019. The announcement comes as part of a growing movement by states across the country to create rigorous, technologically advanced assessments that meet states' academic standards.
Georgia's new student assessment program will comprise online end-of-grade (EOG) summative assessments in grades 3-8 and online end-of-course (EOC) summative assessments in grades 9-12. To ensure a successful testing program, CTB will provide high quality services and products to create a seamless operational testing program consisting of psychometrically sound, secure items and forms that are aligned with the state's academic content standards specified in the College and Career Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS) in English Language Arts and Mathematics and the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) in Science and Social Studies. In Year 1, around 30 percent of the students will take the assessment online and in the subsequent years, the Department will transition all students and schools to online administration.
CTB worked with the state of Georgia, since 2006, to develop, administer and score the state's Criterion-Referenced Competency test and since then has become a trusted source of customised assessments that meet the state's academic standards. Working closely with school districts, states and institutions spanning all levels of education from pre-K to adult, CTB provides assessment tools to measure student potential, chart a course toward improved learning and direct students to success for classroom, interim and summative assessments.
