Georgia gets COVID-19 waiver on school performance ratings

Milestones tests taken by Georgia students during the 2020-2021 school year will not be used to measure the performance of teachers and schools.

The U.S. Department of Education on Friday approved the state’s request to waive the requirement that it produce the College and Career Ready Performance Index, an annual school report card based largely on standardized test scores.

Schools are still required to administer the tests. The scores are typically used in determinations about whether to promote students to the next grade, but schools have been instructed not to use the scores for that this year. Also, the tests normally count for a fifth of the grades in Algebra, U.S. history, biology and American literature and composition, the four tested subjects in high school, but the state education board reduced that to 0.01% of the grade for this school year.