Elementary School Assessments

ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 is administered, annually, to all English learners in Georgia. ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 is a standards-based, criterion referenced English language proficiency test designed to measure English learners’ social and academic proficiency in English. It assesses social and instructional English as well as the language associated with language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies within the school context across the four language domains. ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 meets the federal requirements that mandates require states to evaluate EL students in grades K through 12 on their progress in learning to speak English.

ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 is used to determine the English language proficiency levels and progress of ELs in the domains of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 serves five main purposes.

Pubic Test Resources   

• The Test Demo is a series of videos that explain how students will take the online test and interact with the test platform.
• The Sample Items provide students, parents, and educators with a better understanding of the ACCESS for ELLs Online assessment that is based on the WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards. These are not items that will appear on the operational test, but they provide a close proximity to the items that students will see on the test. To access and view the Sample Items, a Chrome browser must be used.
• The Test Practice items are designed to allow students to experience taking the assessment online and to experiment with the features available to them during the actual assessment. The above link provides access to the Test Practice items for ACCESS for ELLs Online and WIDA Screener Online. To access and view the Test Practice Items, a Chrome browser must be used.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Alternate ACCESS for ELLs

Alternate ACCESS for ELLs is a recently developed, individually administered test. It is intended only for English learners with significant cognitive disabilities that are severe enough to prevent meaningful participation in the ACCESS for ELLs assessment. Alternate ACCESS for ELLs is not intended for ELs who can be served with special education accommodations on ACCESS for ELLs. Decisions regarding a student's participation must be made by an IEP team.  

Participation Criteria:

1. The student has been classified as an English Learner.
2. The student has been classified as a special education student and is receiving special education services.
3. The student has a significant cognitive disability.
4. The student participates in the Georgia Alternate Assessment (GAA).

For more information visit the Georgia Department of Education.

aimsweb Plus is a benchmark and progress monitoring system based on direct, frequent and continuous student assessment. The results are reported to students, parents, teachers and administrators via a web-based data management and reporting system to determine response to intervention. 

The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) measures students' abilities to reason with words (Verbal Battery), quantitative concepts (Quantitative Battery), spatial/figural drawings (Nonverbal Battery). The primary purpose of CogAT is to assess students’ reasoning and problem-solving abilities so educators can help more students achieve instructional objectives.

For more information visit Riverside Publishing.

BEACON is a through-year, computer adaptive, formative interim assessment system administered in ELA and mathematics in grades 3-8. It measures progress throughout the school year, allowing educators to target instruction and make informed decisions. It is mapped to the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE), adjusts difficulty to meet students where they are, and minimizes testing time.

BEACON is aligned with Georgia Milestones in multiple ways, including the standards assessed, item types administered, delivery platform used, and tools and accommodations available. In year 2 it will also provide estimated performance on the end-of-year Georgia Milestones assessment. Ongoing field testing of newly developed BEACON items allows for future alignment to our standards when the GSE are revised.

For more information visit the Georgia Department of Education.

The GAA 2.0 is designed to ensure that students with significant cognitive disabilities are provided access to the state academic content standards and given the opportunity to demonstrate achievement of the knowledge, concepts, and skills inherent in the standards. This assessment will provide meaningful information about classroom instruction and help identify students’ areas of strength and improvement through standardized tests. Unlike the original GAA, GAA 2.0 is not a portfolio-based assessment. Thus, it will measure students’ achievement and not progress. The GAA 2.0 will be administered to all eligible students in the following areas:

•  Grades 3-8, and 11 will be assessed in English language arts and mathematics.
•  Grades 5, 8, and 11 will be assessed in science.
•  Grade 8 and 11 will be assessed in science and social studies.

The GAA 2.0 will include standardized items with multiple access points. The intent is to reduce the teacher’s burden related to selecting or developing tasks; bring greater standardization to the administration; improve scoring reliability; and introduce an online task submission system.

GAA 2.0 Parent Flyer English | Spanish

For more information visit the Georgia Department of Education.

The Georgia Milestones Assessment System (Georgia Milestones) is a comprehensive summative assessment program spanning grades 3 through high school.  Georgia Milestones measures how well students have learned the knowledge and skills outlined in the state-adopted content standards in English Language Arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.  Students in grades 3 through 8 take an end-of-grade assessment in English Language Arts and mathematics while students in grade 5 are assessed in science and students in grade 8 are assessed in science and social studies.

Features of the 2020-2021 Georgia Milestone Assessment System include: 

• English Language Arts & Mathematics (Grades 6-8)
  • All constructed response (CR) items will be replaced with technology enhanced (TE) items in Math.
  • Some CR items will be replaced with TE items in ELA.
    • Section 1-Reading & Evidence Based Writing and Narrative Writing Prompts will remain unchanged.
    • Section 2 & 3 - Two-point CR (which assess reading comprehension) will be replaced with technology items.
• Science & Social Studies (Grade 8)
  • These content areas will remain all selected response in 2022-2023.

EOG Resources:

• Test Blueprints have been updated for all grades and content areas/courses. The blueprints for science and social studies reflect the reporting categories, content weights, and number of items/points recommended by committees of Georgia educators for the new assessment. The blueprints for other content areas have been updated to include the approximate number of points for each reporting category. 
• Assessment Guides are provided to acquaint Georgia educators and other stakeholders with the structure and content assessed on the End of Grade (EOG) measures.
• Study/Resource Guides serve as a resource for parents and students.
• Understanding the Georgia Milestones Achievement Levels
  • Four Levels:
    • Beginning Learner
    • Developing Learner
    • Proficient Learner
    • Distinguished Learner

For more information visit the Georgia Department of Education. 

The Georgia Department of Education offers the updated Experience Online Testing Georgia website - a demonstration test for each content area: English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. The primary purpose of this website is to provide exposure to the online platform that students will utilize when taking the Georgia Milestones tests.

This practice site lets students see what testing online is like. Parents and educators are welcome to try it also. The items on the demonstration tests are general and represent multiple grade levels. The items do not necessarily represent the specific grade-level content that students learn daily in their classrooms. The primary purpose is to let students experience, firsthand, the functionality of the online testing platform. The sample tests are not graded, so have fun!

—Experience Online Testing Georgia website

It is important to understand the items that comprise the demonstration tests are general in nature and reflect multiple grade levels. Given the purpose of this site is to acquaint students with the navigation of the online testing process, the items are generic and do not necessarily reflect the range of content or challenge students will experience when taking the actual Georgia Milestones tests. In addition to the four content area demonstration tests, three short accommodated demonstration tests are available including High Contrast, Large Font, and Screen Reader.

Please be aware that Flash is needed to access the demonstration tests and therefore the site cannot be viewed from iPads or other devices that do not support Flash. This should not be interpreted to mean that this limitation of the demonstration tests applies to the operational Georgia Milestones tests.

Again, these opportunities are provided to ensure students have familiarity with the testing platform prior to a live administration. 

We hope you find the Experience Online Testing Georgia website helpful!

GKIDS 2.0 is a progression-based formative assessment, integrated into classroom work, that is aligned to the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE). GKIDS 2.0 is organized around big ideas and learning progressions. 

• ​A big idea describes the integration of concepts and skills from the kindergarten standards that are most important for success in first grade. 
• A learning progression shows where the student is in the learning continuum of content and reasoning development regarding the big idea from the GSE.
  • Learning progressions provide the big picture of what is to be learned across the year, relate increased reasoning of standards within the grade and across grades, and support instructional planning. 

GKIDS 2.0 provides teachers with one source of real-time information to adjust instruction, by identifying what a student already knows, what the student needs next, and by allowing the teacher to monitor growth. 

For more information visit the Georgia Department of Education.

The GKIDS Readiness Check is a new component of the Georgia Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (GKIDS). It is designed to be administered during the first six weeks of the kindergarten year. The GKIDS Readiness Check is aligned to the Georgia Early Learning and Development Standards (GELDS) and correlated to the state mandates content standards for kindergarten. The goal of the assessment is to provide information about the skills of students entering kindergarten. 

We are pleased and excited to announce the launch of a parent resource website for the GKIDS Readiness Check!   The site will serve as a resource for parents to learn more about kindergarten readiness, the skills assessed on the GKIDS Readiness Check, and activities to help support their child’s development at home.  The site includes Spanish translation and closed captioning.   The website may be accessed using the following links:  GKIDSReadinessCheck.gadoe.org or (a shorter version) KReady.gadoe.org.

Parent Flyer (English) Color / Black & White  |  Parent Flyer (Spanish) Color / Black & White

For more information visit the Georgia Department of Education.

Improving Georgia's Early Literacy and Numeracy Skills Through Game-Based Assessment

Welcome to Keenville on Planet Peachy Keen!  We’re glad you’re here to meet our friends, the Keens.  The Keens live in Keenville and want to help Georgia’s youngest learners – those in first and second grade – grow and learn important reading and math skills.  Keenville is an innovative, developmentally appropriate game-based approach to formative assessment.  Traditional tests are not developmentally appropriate for young learners, and too often capture only one moment in time. Game-based assessment provides an alternative that is research-based and adds value for students, educators and parents. Game based assessments provide a unique opportunity to:   

• integrate learning alongside assessment;                                               
• support and empower the teacher with information to differentiate instruction for all students, whether they are struggling, on-grade-level, or advanced; and
• hook students into the fun of learning! 

For more information visit the Georgia Department of Education.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America’s students know and can do in various subject areas. Assessments are conducted periodically in mathematics, reading, science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, and U.S. history.

NAEP provides results on subject-matter achievement, instructional experiences, and school environment for populations of students (e.g., all fourth-graders) and groups within those populations (e.g., female students, Hispanic students). NAEP does not provide scores for individual students or schools, although state NAEP can report results by selected large urban districts. NAEP results are based on representative samples of students at grades 4, 8, and 12 for the main assessments, or samples of students at ages 9, 13, or 17 years for the long-term trend assessments. These grades and ages were chosen because they represent critical junctures in academic achievement.

For more information visit the Georgia Department of Education.