The release last week of a key Georgia K-12 educational testing assessment for 2019—the CCRPI—revealed that Cobb schools performed above the state and national averages, with East Cobb schools leading at all levels.
It’s among the myriad ways that local school districts meet required state assessment benchmarks, along with the Georgia Milestones.
The Cobb County School District had applied for a waiver to use its own pilot testing model, CobbMetrics, in lieu of the Milestones. However, that request was turned down by the U.S. Department of Education over the summer.
The district had the option of reapplying, but instead will continue administering CobbMetrics—a “formative assessment” which calls for shorter, continuous and individualized tests issued throughout the school year—along with the Milestones.
In the Milestones, students in grades 3-8 are tested at the end of each school year in English arts and math, while students in grades 5-8 are also tested in science and social studies.
The high school Milestones tests come at the end of each course, and students are tested in the 10 courses designated by the Georgia Board of Education.
In its application, Cobb schools argued that its model offers a better gauge not only of student progress, but gives teachers the tools to adapt to what they see as learning needs.
Think of it as a regular series of glorified pop quizzes.
“Instead of one big test at the end of the year, we’re testing [in] small chunks in real time,” John Floresta, the Chief Strategy and Accountability Officer for Cobb schools, said in an interview with East Cobb News at the start of the current 2019-20 school year. “The whole school year is worked around the Milestones.”
In medical parlance, what Cobb is aiming for is “a biopsy, not an autopsy,” he said.
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The CobbMetrics model has evolved over the last few years, and came about when current superintendent Chris Ragsdale served as Cobb schools’ chief technology officer.
“He knew a lot more about our students than what the Milestones tell us,” Floresta said.
That includes the ability for teachers to get more immediate feedback to make adjustments to meet a particular student’s needs, instead of waiting until after the end of the school year.
“The very best hope for any student is for a teacher to take them in and help them learn better,” Floresta said. “They can’t do that if they don’t have the tools for knowing what they need to know.”
Three different testing models have been approved in Georgia, including MAP (which Marietta schools use and which did receive a waiver). Cobb’s was turned down, Floresta said, because it didn’t meet certain comparability measures used by the U.S. Department of Education.
Floresta said Cobb was hesitant to adopt yet another testing model: “We don’t think that’s good for students, teachers and parents.”
During the current school year, Cobb will continue administering the Iowa assessments in grades 3,5 and 7 and the PSAT in 10th grade, along with the Milestones.
“Nothing is changing with testing this year,” Floresta said.
Middle-school and elementary-school students taking the Iowa assessments were tested in September.
High school sophomores were given the PSAT earlier this month. The first batch of high school Milestones tests come Nov. 28-Dec. 14, at the end of the first semester.
In the meantime, Cobb will continue to work on “equating” CobbMetrics with state and federal guidelines during its pilot period in hopes of eventually getting a waiver.
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