The U.S. Education Department has approved two testing pilot programs some Georgia school districts will use.
The department OK’d the Georgia MAP Partnership and the Putnam County Consortium. They each include 10 school districts. The idea is to give smaller tests throughout the year as opposed to one big high-stakes assessment at the end of a year or course.
As part of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states can apply for waivers from federal standardized testing requirements. Currently, states are required to test students in grades 3-8 once each year in English/Language Arts and math and once in high school. Schools also have to test students in science once in elementary school, once in middle school, and once in high school. The waiver program, called the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA), requires applicants to outline alternative testing plans that would provide the same information as yearly assessments.
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