91桃色视频

By D. Aileen Dodd

Georgia public schools are bracing for the impact of a new series of standardized tests that will be used as a measuring stick for student achievement. rolls into schools this spring, and the new exams are causing great聽uncertainty among those who will face them for the first time.

Educators are preparing for questions about the high-stakes tests, which few have seen. Students聽are being asked to brave the聽winds of higher expectations. Some kids fear they will be blown over by聽low test聽scores if they fall short of聽State goals. Critics of聽high-stakes聽testing decry the exams as inaccurate measures of student learning that can stifle the education of kids.

Nevertheless, for Georgia charter schools, which by聽State mandate must聽outperform聽the local districts from which they draw students, the pressure is on to push kids over the Milestones learning curve. Milestones scores will be used with other data to determine the effectiveness of charter schools and whether they meet聽State accountability goals. Hiccups in student achievement over time impact a charter鈥檚 contract renewal.

At , administrators are making a grand gesture to help smooth the transition and relieve test anxiety for parents and students concerned about the Georgia Milestones. School administrators have offered to make home visits to the living rooms of parents who want more information about the changes in the tests. The outreach is the school鈥檚 way of staying connected with parents and encouraging them to work with their children at home to prepare for success on the Milestones.

鈥淲e want to reach parents where they are in their own community,鈥� said Joy Treadwell, principal of Ivy Prep Gwinnett. 鈥淲e know parents are busy. Sometimes, they can鈥檛 make it to school. That is why we have launched a living room initiative. We want everyone to gain knowledge about the test.鈥�

The Milestones, which test students in grades 3-8, are aligned with the curriculum. The tests measure how well students are mastering lessons in language arts, mathematics, science and social studies. The assessments replace the outgoing Georgia Criterion Referenced-Competency Tests, the End of Course Tests,聽and the state Writing Assessment.

Students who met and exceeded standards on the outgoing聽State exams will find some key elements of the former tests continued on the Milestones. The new exam will also feature some challenges designed to push students to use critical thinking rather than memorization to answer questions. For example, students will be asked open-ended questions in math that will have them explaining the method they used and how they arrived at their answers. The Milestones will also have open-ended essay questions in language arts and a writing section that follows reading passages.

At Ivy Preparatory Academy at Kirkwood in DeKalb County, students are already seeing more open-ended questions on homework and quizzes to help them become familiar with the format of the new state exams.

Teachers have invited parents to attend a monthly lecture series called 鈥淧arent University鈥� where they can ask questions and learn more about the Milestones.

鈥淭he teacher talks to parents about the types of questions their child will see; the content and structure of the test; and how they can support their student in the individual content areas of the Milestones,鈥� said Kendra Shipmon, principal of Ivy Prep Kirkwood鈥檚 School for Girls.

Getting parents to partner with the school on the Milestones Assessments is a strategy Ivy Prep Kirkwood is using to help take the fear out of the exam for students. 鈥淎ny level of uncertainty about an exam makes students nervous,鈥� Shipmon said. 鈥淲e are working with them a lot on test-taking skills.鈥�

Georgia聽Department of Education officials are also working to alleviate anxiety over the Milestones through outreach. Presentations on the new exam can be found on state DOE鈥檚 website. State education officials said that the change in state exams was necessary to give parents a more realistic picture of their child鈥檚 academic performance and to make Georgia students more prepared for college and careers after graduation.

Each content area of the Milestones will include norm-referenced questions that will allow achievement data for Georgia kids to be compared against their peers in other states. A standardized test already tracking national data on student performance, the 聽(NAEP), routinely reports that achievement scores for Georgia鈥檚 kids are significantly lower in some areas when national standards were used to evaluate them. For example, in 2013, only 34 percent of fourth graders were at or above proficiency in reading on the NAEP. Georgia鈥檚 CRCT, a state assessment, found that 93 percent of fourth graders met or exceeded standards in reading,State records show.

鈥淲e need to know that students are being prepared, not at a minimum-competency level, but with rigorous, relevant education to enter college the workforce or the military at a level that makes them competitive with students from other states,鈥� John Barge,聽State Schools Superintendent said in a statement.

Barge added that the Milestones Assessments may cause a temporary dip in student test scores, but the change was necessary and represents an opportunity to recalibrate as a state and refocus on teaching and learning.

Officials with , however, disagree. They say standardized tests like the Georgia Milestones don鈥檛 go far enough to truly measure individual student learning through open-ended questions. What results, testing opponents say, is an exam that can be unfairly used to label schools and an education environment that teaches to the test and stresses out kids.

鈥淭he shift to a performance assessment that was promised by Common Core testing proponents did not come to fruition,鈥� said Bob Schaeffer, national spokesman for FairTest. 鈥淭hese new tests are no better than the old exams. They are still largely multiple choice, and their results will continue to be misused in the same way by politicians in an attempt to make decisions about students, teachers and schools.鈥�

What is your view on the Milestones exams? What is your charter school doing to help bolster scores despite the state鈥檚 predicted drop in student achievement on the Milestones? How are you making parents and students feel confident about the new exams?

D. Aileen Dodd is聽president of D. Aileen Dodd & Associates Media Services and media relations coordinator for Ivy Preparatory Academy

The views and opinions expressed on CharterConfidential聽are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency.

Georgia Charter Schools Association

The Georgia Charter Schools Association (91桃色视频) is the membership organization for Georgia鈥檚 charter school operators and petitioners, established in 2001. Our mission is to be an effective advocate and service provider for all charter public schools in Georgia.