Education

Gwinnett County schools seeing some glitches with Georgia Milestones exams

A student takes an exam with pencil and paper. Gwinnett County school officials say some schools are experiencing technical glitches with the online assessment for the Georgia Milestones. AJC file photo
A student takes an exam with pencil and paper. Gwinnett County school officials say some schools are experiencing technical glitches with the online assessment for the Georgia Milestones. AJC file photo
April 21, 2017

State education officials are working with Gwinnett County to repair some online glitches they’re having administering the Georgia Milestones exams, school district officials said Thursday.

“We have had a few challenges with the online portion of the assessment this week,” Debbie Durrence, Gwinnett’s executive director of accountability and assessment told school board members during a meeting Thursday. “Paper administrations have gone smoothly in our schools, but (the Georgia Department of Education) and the vendor have both been working with us to resolve those challenges.”

Widespread problems last year with the online portions of the exams prompted Georgia officials to void the results for use in decisions about promoting students to the next grade.

The Georgia Milestones is an annual assessment created to measure proficiency of public school students from the third grade and up in most subjects.

Gwinnett officials said Thursday they will not use the Milestones as part of the decision-making process for summer school in grades 4, 6 and 7 because they may not get the results in time.

About the Author

Eric Stirgus joined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2001. He is the newsroom's education editor. Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Eric is active in the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists and the Education Writers Association and enjoys mentoring aspiring journalists.

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