Background
In 2018, the general assembly passed Senate Bill 362 that authorized the State Board of Education to authorize districts to pilot new innovative assessment systems that could eventually replace Milestones. Charter Systems were at the forefront of this initiative.
In 2019, the State Board approved two alternative assessment systems to be piloted by two groups comprised of 31 districts in total.
The objective is to replace Milestones, which provides only a summative score after the school year has ended, with interim tests to be given throughout the school year with the interim test scores rolling up to a cumulative score at the end of the year. The benefits of the new assessments are twofold:
- The interim tests provide results that are immediately actionable by teachers.
- The instruction time lost at the end of the year in preparing for and administering Milestones is reclaimed for instructional purposes.
Contact either the GMAP Consortium or the Navvy Consortium for more information
These two groups have been approved by the State Board.
- The Navvy assessment system was developed by Dr. Laine Bradshaw from the University of Georgia. Putnam County (a charter system) is leading this consortium. More information can be found at the Navvy website or by contacting Mr. Eric Arena, Superintendent, Putnam County or Dr. Laine Bradshaw.
- The GMAP assessment system is being developed by NWEA, especially for Georgia. NWEA owns the MAP Growth assessment platform. Marietta (a charter system) is leading this consortium. More information can be found at the GMAP website. More information can be found at or by contacting Mr. Michael Huneke, Director of Assessment, Marietta City Schools.