Floyd BOE OKs new assessment system
♦ System officials hope the $50,000 MAP assessment system will replace the required Georgia Milestones tests.
With scores on the Georgia Milestones tests set to be released next week, Floyd County Board of Education members approved a different assessment which school system officials say they hope replaces the state tests.
Earlier this week during a called meeting, board members approved spending $50,000 from the general fund for the MAP — Measure of Academic Progress — assessment. This $50,000 is an annual expense for the assessment system.
“This is the linchpin,” said Superintendent Jeff Wilson, adding that it is what the system needs for student achievement growth.
Initially, the assessment will be used for students in kindergarten through eighth-grade, at least for the first two years from implementation, Wilson said. Then the assessment system would spread into high school.
John Parker, the county school system’s assistant superintendent and chief academic officer, said with MAP the math and reading inventory will be discontinued, citing a lack of results.
Also, instead of end of unit tests, students across the system will be taking a similar test in MAP.
With MAP — which develops a more personalized assessment for each student as it changes depending on their responses, allowing teachers to more accurately see what the needs are of each student, according to NWEA, the nonprofit behind the assessment — students would be tested three times a year.
“The kids are being tested to death,” said board member Melinda Strickland, who taught in the school system for 31 years. “(Teachers) want time to teach.”
Ideally the goal is to use MAP and NAAVY ELA and math assessments as the only tests, Parker said.
Wilson said the system aims to make MAP their Milestones, with approval to make the change from the required tests yet to come from the state Department of Education. He explained that six states already use MAP as their state assessment, and it is more validated than Milestones is.
“We want Milestones to go away,”
Wilson said.
Also on Wednesday, the board approved a $491,000 purchase of student licenses for two literacy intervention programs.
The licenses for the Read 180 and System 44 programs cover three school years, from 2019 to 2021.
The funds for the purchases come from the $3.23 million L4GA — Literacy for Learning, Living and Leading in Georgia — grant awarded to the school system in May. The goal of the L4GA initiative is to improve student literacy learning.
Read 180 targets the top 15 percent of readers in expanding their literacy skills, while System 44 is for the lower 25 percent of readers.
In other items, a Floyd County Schools swim team could soon be founded, depending on student interest.
Wilson said he is in talks with Darlington Head of School Brent Bell about developing a partnership for the new swim team to use Darlington’s pool.
Swimmers from each of the school system’s four districts would practice together, but would represent their own schools for competitions.
School system officials are working to gauge the level of student interest in joining the swimming program.