Testing Information

Assessments at MCS

Both state and local mandates require student participation in a wide array of assessments. The state and local assessments administered in Marietta City Schools assess the state mandated content standards, Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE).

The purposes of the assessment program include:

Monitor student progress relative to the state mandated content standards
Inform decisions regarding placement for special programming
Assess program effectiveness
As a planning tool for school improvement

In addition to the requirements noted below, several of the tests are utilized as part of the system's promotion/retention policy.
For more information about student achievement and College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI), visit the Georgia Department of Education's CCRPI Accountability page.

Grade-Level Testing Information

ACCESS for ELLS (Grades K-12)

ACCESS for ELLs is administered annually to all English learners in Georgia. ACCESS for ELLs 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 meets the federal requirements that mandates states to evaluate EL students in grades K through 12 on their progress in learning to speak English.

ACT (High School)

The ACT® test assesses high school students' general educational development and their ability to complete college-level work.

The Multiple-choice Tests cover four skill areas: English, mathematics, reading, and science.
The Writing Test, which is optional, measures skill in planning and writing a short essay.

How do students benefit from taking the ACT?

The ACT is universally accepted for college admission.
The ACT is curriculum-based.

The ACT is not an aptitude or an IQ test. Instead, the questions on the ACT are directly related to what students have learned in high school courses in English, mathematics, and science.
Because the ACT tests are based on what is taught in the high school curriculum, students are generally more comfortable with the ACT than they are with traditional aptitude tests or tests with narrower content.

The ACT is more than a test. The ACT also provides test takers with a unique interest inventory that provides valuable information for career and educational planning and a student profile section that provides a comprehensive profile of a student's work in high school and his or her future plans.

GAA 2.0 (Grades 3-8, 11)

The Georgia Alternate Assessment (GAA) 2.0 is comprised of standardized performance tasks and is intended to provide tiered participation within the assessment for students working at various levels of complexity.

The GAA 2.0 is designed to measure the degree to which students with significant cognitive disabilities have mastered alternate achievement standards in the core content areas of English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.

Georgia Milestones Assessment System (Grades 3-HS)

The Georgia Milestones Assessment System ("Georgia Milestones") is a comprehensive summative assessment program spanning grades 3 through high school. Georgia Milestones End-of Grade (EOG) study guides and End-of-Course (EOC) study guides are available for teachers and families to help prepare students for the Georgia Milestones assessments.

MAP Growth Assessment (Grades K-HS)

Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) is a state-aligned, computerized adaptive assessment program that provides Marietta City Schools educators with the information they need to improve teaching and learning and to make student-focused, data-driven decisions.

Students in grades Kindergarten through eight are tested three times per year in math and reading. Students in grades nine and ten are tested twice a year. Educators use the growth and achievement data from MAP Growth to develop targeted instructional strategies and to plan school improvement.

Measure of Academic Progress (MAP):

is not an accountability test.
generates test questions based on student responses.
reports student results in RIT scores.
gives immediate results.
is aligned to the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE) in reading and math.
measures growth over time.
provides information used to target individual instruction.

For more information, view the MAP Growth Parent Guide (English), MAP Growth Parent Guide (Spanish), and MAP Growth Parent Guide (Portuguese).

NAEP (Grades 4, 8, and 12)

For more than 50 years, information on what American students know and can do has been generated by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). It is the only ongoing effort to obtain comprehensive and dependable achievement data on a national basis in a uniform and scientific manner.

Commonly known as “The Nation's Report Card,” NAEP is a congressionally mandated project of the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Some schools around the state of Georgia are selected to participate in this assessment, but most are not selected. Marietta City Schools generally has one to two schools selected to participate and are generally notified of this by September of each year.