Midstate students gird for Milestones tests, with much on the line

As the crucial Georgia Milestones assessments approach, students have been busy preparing in a variety of ways.

The tests will be administered over the next few weeks, and results will be used to measure student progress -- as well as school effectiveness. As a result, preparations didn't just begin recently at schools across Middle Georgia.

This is the first year that the test will factor into promotion -- or retention -- for third-, fifth- and eighth-grade students. Students who don't score high enough to get promoted the first time around, though, will get a re-test opportunity as well as summer school for a chance to show improvement.

Students took the test last year, but scores weren't used to determine whether they were promoted to the next grade.

"To me, the practice has been going well," said Lashonda Gilbert, an assistant principal at Vineville Academy. "It's an ongoing, yearlong process."

As the tests have drawn near, students have been "fine tuning" their strategies based on that process, using computers and tablets to take practice tests.

The main difference between the Milestones and past assessments such as the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests is that the new test, first used during the 2014-15 school year, focuses as much on the work and a student's thought process as it does on the final answer.

As a result, students have to make sure they know the concepts behind the work they're doing, even on math tests.

The assessment program spans grades three through high school. The tests are meant to measure how well students have learned the knowledge and skills outlined in the state-adopted content standards in language arts, mathematics, science and social studies.

Students in grades three through eight take an end-of-grade assessment in each content area, while high school students take an end-of-course assessment for each of the 10 courses designated by the state Board of Education.

"The percentage or the score is actually going to be derived from them showing that they know the (content) standard," Gilbert said.

Teachers and other school employees have also been talking to students about tips for success come test day.

Vineville Academy counselor Carra Floyd told some of the school's fourth-graders on Thursday that they should try to get 30 to 45 minutes more sleep than they usually get on a school night, and she also pointed to a good breakfast as key.

She also talked to them about "standard relaxation techniques" such as stretching.

"Sometimes that helps us to realign ourselves," she said.

Because some students have test anxiety, Floyd said it was important to make sure they didn't let that stress "get the best of them." In the end, that effort was all about making sure they remember just how much they've worked to get ready for testing.

"What we try to remind them, too, is they've been preparing for this all year," Floyd said.

At least one third-grade teacher at Alexander II Magnet School has extended the learning process outside the normal school day to try to keep students from being retained because of Milestones testing.

Delphia Boynton started after-school tutoring sessions on Thursdays for any interested third-grade student at the school, with reading and math as the primary focuses.

Andy Martin, whose son Connor is in Boynton's class, comes to help out with the tutoring sessions, which last for about an hour and 45 minutes.

"Because I saw the stress that it was putting on my son and the stress it was putting on his teacher," he explained.

On the reading side, Martin said the sessions are aimed at getting students to find and mark key details in reading passages and prepare for the essay questions, which he said was a "little much" for third-graders to be doing.

A machinist at Robins Air Force Base, Martin helps out mainly with the math portions of the test, and he's seen growth since Boynton started the tutoring in October.

"The progress I've seen in the students from then to now is amazing," he said.

The tutoring program is one of several efforts to boost scores across the district, said Floyd Jolley, formerly the Bibb County system's social studies coordinator but recently promoted to executive director of secondary education.

He also pointed to professional learning opportunities for teachers as well as Saturday school targeting Milestones standards at some of the county's schools.

"We've done a lot of things this year to get them ready, all year long," Jolley said.

The fruits of all that labor won't be fully known until the results come back in late spring, though.

"We're hoping that we're going to see a lot of improvement in a lot of areas," Jolley said.

To contact writer Jeremy Timmerman, call 744-4331 or find him on Twitter@MTJTimm.

This story was originally published April 9, 2016 at 1:09 PM.