Georgia Selects CTB/McGraw-Hill to Develop New Online Standardized Student Assessment

MONTEREY, Calif. — May 27, 2014 — CTB/McGraw-Hill, one of the nation's leading educational assessment partners, today announced that the Georgia Department of Education (GDOE) has selected the company to develop a new customized state assessment for all Georgia students. The project will replace the state’s current Criterion-Referenced Competency Test and  End of Course Tests with the new assessment which will be called Georgia Milestones Assessment System (Georgia Milestones) beginning in the 2015 school year and will work to transition all Georgia tests online by 2019. The announcement comes as part of a growing movement by states across the country to create rigorous, technologically advanced assessments that meet states’ academic standards.

“We are incredibly proud that Georgia has chosen to join the growing number of states who have partnered with CTB to develop and implement the next generation of student assessments,” said Ellen Haley, president of CTB/McGraw-Hill. “We commend Georgia's commitment to the advancement of the digital classroom. As we move further into the age of computer-assisted education, assessment tools will prove to be a driving force in delivering increasingly effective instruction and ensuring college and career readiness for all students.”

Georgia’s new student assessment program will be comprised of online end-of-grade (EOG) summative assessments in grades 3-8 and online end-of-course (EOC) summative assessments in grades 9-12.  To ensure a successful testing program, CTB will provide high quality services and products to create a seamless operational testing program consisting of psychometrically sound,  secure items and forms that are aligned with the state’s academic content standards specified in the College and Career Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS) in English Language Arts and Mathematics and the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) in Science and Social Studies.  In Year 1, around 30% of the students will take the assessment online and in the subsequent years, the Department will transition all students and schools to online administration.

CTB worked with the state of Georgia, since 2006, to develop, administer and score the state’s Criterion-Referenced Competency test and since then has become a trusted source of customized assessments that meet the state’s academic standards. Working closely with school districts, states and institutions spanning all levels of education from pre-K to adult, CTB provides assessment tools to measure student potential, chart a course toward improved learning and direct students to success for classroom, interim and summative assessments.