ATLANTA – In early September, Georgia’s Superintendent Dr. Richard Woods expressed dismay about the U.S. Department of Education announcement it would not consider testing waivers for the 2020-21 school year.

Now, he has a plan of action.

“I remain disappointed and disheartened by the federal directive to administer high-stakes tests in a pandemic,” Woods said in a statement. “Georgia will abide by federal law, but we are not going to layer additional stress and burden onto our students and teachers during this time.

“In 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.”

Georgia was the first state in the nation to announce its intent to apply for a waiver of standardized testing requirements in 2020-21 and, based on survey results from across the state, received overwhelming support for the waiver.

However, a letter sent earlier this month to chief state school officers by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos detailed the department’s plans to not grant federal testing waivers for the 2020-21 school year.

Thursday, Woods announced some of the immediate actions and recommendations to reduce these pressures, including addressing the requirement that Georgia Milestones End of Course scores constitute 20% of a student’s grade in an EOC course, according to a statement released by the Georgia Department of Education.

At the Oct. 1 State Board of Education meeting, Woods said he plans to recommend the current ECO grade weight of 20% be lowered to 0.01% for the 2020-21 school year. The statement said while this is essentially zero, it follows state law prohibiting the number from actually being zero.

Woods is waiving the promotion and retention consequences tied to Georgia Milestones.

“Effective immediately, it is the official directive of the Georgia Department of Education that school districts with flexibility contracts (charter system or strategic waiver school system) use input from teachers and parents, placement committees, class performance and formative tools to determine the need to promote or retain their students at the end of the 2020-21 school year. Student promotion/retention decisions should not be based on 2020-21 performance on the Georgia Milestones tests,” according to the Georgia Department of Education.

Districts will be given flexibility to assess students during the winter mid-month or spring administration as needed to ensure a more appropriate amount of instructional time is available prior to administration of the EOC. 

“Districts can also request extending their local testing window later in the school day to include afternoon and evening testing sessions and/or utilize a compressed testing schedule due to the updated Georgia Milestones test design, which includes a significant decrease in student testing time,” the district stated.