Georgia Milestones Biology EOC Assessment Guide
MileststoonesAssessment SystemAssessment GuideBiologyCopyright 2020 by Georgia Department of Education. All rights reserved.Assessment GuideGeorgia
Table of ContentsTHE GEORGIA MILESTONES ASSESSMENT SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3GEORGIA MILESTONES END-OF-COURSE (EOC) ASSESSMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4ASSESSMENT GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5TESTING SCHEDULE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6TEST STRUCTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7DESCRIPTION OF TEST FORMAT AND ORGANIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7CONTENT MEASURED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8ITEM TYPES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE DESCRIPTORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11SCORES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14EXAMPLE ITEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16ADDITIONAL SAMPLE ITEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26ADDITIONAL SAMPLE ITEM KEYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47EXAMPLE SCORING RUBRICS AND EXEMPLAR RESPONSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Copyright 2020 by Georgia Department of Education. All rights reserved.
The Georgia Milestones Assessment SystemTHE GEORGIA MILESTONES ASSESSMENT SYSTEMThe purpose of the Georgia Student Assessment Program is to measure student achievement of the stateadopted content standards and inform efforts to improve teaching and learning. Results of the assessmentprogram are utilized to identify students failing to achieve mastery of content, to provide educatorswith feedback about instructional practice, and to assist school districts in identifying strengths andweaknesses in order to establish priorities in planning educational programs.The State Board of Education is required by Georgia law (O.C.G.A. §20-2-281) to adopt assessmentsdesigned to measure student achievement relative to the knowledge and skills set forth in the stateadopted content standards. The Georgia Milestones Assessment System (Georgia Milestones) fulfills thisrequirement and, as a key component of Georgia’s Student Assessment Program, is a comprehensivesummative assessment program spanning Grade 3 through high school. Georgia Milestones measureshow well students have learned the knowledge and skills outlined in the state-adopted content standardsin English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. Students in grades 3 through 8 takean end-of-grade assessment in English Language Arts and Mathematics; additionally, students in grades5 and 8 are assessed in Science; and students in grade 8 are assessed in Social Studies. High schoolstudents take an end-of-course assessment for each of the five courses designated by the State Board ofEducation. In accordance with State Board Rule, Georgia Milestones end-of-course measures serve as thefinal exams for the specified high school courses.The main purpose of Georgia Milestones is to inform efforts to improve student achievement by assessingstudent performance on the standards specific to each course or subject/grade tested. Specifically,Georgia Milestones is designed to provide students and their parents with critical information aboutthe students’ achievement and, importantly, their preparedness for the next educational level. Theassessment system is a critical informant of the state’s accountability measure, the College and CareerReady Performance Index (CCRPI), providing an important gauge about the quality of the educationalservices and opportunities provided throughout the state.The ultimate goal of Georgia’s assessment and accountability system is to ensure that all students areprovided the opportunity to engage with high-quality content standards, receive high-quality instructionpredicated upon those standards, and are positioned to meet high academic expectations.Features of the Georgia Milestones Assessment System include: technology-enhanced items in all grades and courses;open-ended (constructed-response) items in English Language Arts (all grades and courses);a writing component (in response to passages read by students) at every grade level and course withinthe English Language Arts assessment; andonline administration as the primary mode of administration.Georgia Milestones Biology EOC Assessment Guide Copyright 2020 by Georgia Department of Education. All rights reserved.Page 3 of 64
The Georgia Milestones Assessment SystemThe mode of administration for the Georgia Milestones program is online. Paper/pencil test materials,such as Braille forms, will be available for the small number of students who cannot interact with thecomputer due to their disability as documented in an IEP, IAP/504, or EL-TPC Plan.Georgia Milestones follows guiding principles to help ensure that the assessment system: is sufficiently challenging to ensure Georgia students are well positioned to compete with otherstudents across the United States and internationally;is intentionally designed across grade levels to send a clear signal of student academic progress andpreparedness for the next level, whether it is the next grade level, course, or college or career;is accessible to all students, including those with disabilities or limited English proficiency, at allachievement levels;supports and informs the state’s educator-effectiveness initiatives, ensuring items and forms areappropriately sensitive to quality instructional practices; andincludes innovative technology-enhanced items.GEORGIA MILESTONES END-OF-COURSE (EOC) ASSESSMENTSAs previously mentioned, Georgia law (§20-2-281) mandates that the State Board of Education adopt EOCassessments for core courses to be determined by the Board. An EOC assessment serves as a student’sfinal exam in the associated course. With educator input and State Board approval, the Georgia MilestonesEOC assessments measure student achievement in the following courses: American Literature andComposition, Algebra I, Coordinate Algebra, Biology, and United States History.Any student enrolled in and/or receiving credit for one of the above-mentioned courses, regardless ofgrade level, is required to take the Georgia Milestones EOC assessment upon completion of that course.This includes middle school students completing a course associated with a Georgia Milestones EOCassessment, regardless of whether they are receiving high school credit. Students enrolling from nonaccredited programs are required to take and pass the Georgia Milestones EOC assessment prior toreceiving credit for the course.A student’s final grade in the course will be calculated using the Georgia Milestones EOC assessment asfollows (State Board Rule 160-4-2-.13): For students enrolled in Grade 9 for the first time before July 1, 2011, the EOC assessment counts as15% of the final grade.For students enrolled in Grade 9 for the first time on or after July 1, 2011, the EOC assessment countsas 20% of the final grade.Page 4 of 64 Georgia Milestones Biology EOC Assessment GuideCopyright 2020 by Georgia Department of Education. All rights reserved.
The Georgia Milestones Assessment SystemResults of the EOC assessments, according to the legislated and identified purposes, must: provide a valid measure of student achievement of the state content standards across the fullachievement continuum;serve as the final exam for each course, contributing 15% or 20% to the student’s final course grade;provide a clear signal of each student’s preparedness for the next course and ultimately postsecondary endeavors (college and career);allow for the detection of the academic progress made by each student from one assessed course tothe next;support and inform educator-effectiveness measures; andinform state and federal accountability measures at the school, district, and state levels.Additional uses of the EOC assessments include: (1) certifying student proficiency prior to the awardingof credit for students enrolling from non-accredited private schools, home study programs, or other nontraditional educational centers and (2) allowing eligible students to demonstrate competency withouttaking the course and earn course credit (e.g., “test out”). In both cases, students are allotted oneadministration.ASSESSMENT GUIDEThe Georgia Milestones Biology EOC Assessment Guide is provided to acquaint Georgia educators and otherstakeholders with the structure of and content assessed by the test. Importantly, this guide is not intendedto inform instructional planning. It is essential to note that there are a small number of content standardsthat are better suited for classroom or individual assessment than for large-scale summative assessment.While those standards are not included in the tests and therefore are not included in this AssessmentGuide, the knowledge, concepts, and skills inherent in those standards are often required for the masteryof the standards that are assessed. Failure to attend to all content standards within a course can limit astudent’s opportunity to learn and show what he or she knows and can do on the assessment.The Georgia Milestones Biology EOC Assessment Guide is in no way intended to substitute for the statemandated content standards; it is provided to help educators better understand the structure andcontent of the assessment, but it is not all-encompassing of the knowledge, concepts, and skills coveredin the course or assessed on the test. The state-adopted content standards and associated standardsbased instructional resources, such as the Content Frameworks, should be used to plan instruction. ThisAssessment Guide can serve as a supplement to those resources, in addition to any locally developedresources, but should not be used in isolation. In principle, the Assessment Guide is intended to bedescriptive of the assessment program and should not be considered all-inclusive. The state-adoptedcontent standards are located at www.georgiastandards.org.Georgia Milestones Biology EOC Assessment Guide Copyright 2020 by Georgia Department of Education. All rights reserved.Page 5 of 64
Testing ScheduleTESTING SCHEDULEThe Georgia Milestones Biology EOC assessment is offered during three Main Administrations. MainAdministrations are primarily intended to provide an opportunity to assess student achievement at thecompletion of a course and to serve as the final exam for the associated course as required by StateBoard Rule. As a result, the EOC assessment should occur as close to the conclusion of the course aspossible. Main Administrations can also be utilized to verify credit from a non-accredited school or homeschooling. In addition to the Main Administrations, Mid-Month Administrations are provided in order toallow students additional testing opportunities for the various reasons noted below.Purpose for EOCAssessmentWinter & ummer MainAdministrationCompletion ofCourseYesYesYesMakeup Test OutNoYes**YesValidation of CreditYesYesYes*Winter and Spring Main Administrations cannot be used for the purpose of a retest.**August, September, and March Mid-Month Administrations as well as the Summer Main Administrationcan be used for the purpose of a test out.Note: Each district determines a local testing window within the state-designated testing window.Page 6 of 64 Georgia Milestones Biology EOC Assessment GuideCopyright 2020 by Georgia Department of Education. All rights reserved.
Test StructureTEST STRUCTUREDESCRIPTION OF TEST FORMAT AND ORGANIZATIONThe Georgia Milestones Biology EOC assessment is a criterion-referenced test designed to provideinformation about how well a student has mastered the state-adopted content standards within thecourse. The assessment consists of both operational items and field test items (newly written itemsthat are being tried out and do not contribute to the student’s score). Each student will receive oneof four Achievement Level designations, depending on how well the student has mastered the coursecontent standards. The four Achievement Level designations are Beginning Learner, Developing Learner,Proficient Learner, and Distinguished Learner. In addition to criterion-referenced information, the GeorgiaMilestones measures will also produce an estimate of how Georgia students are achieving relative to theirpeers nationally. The norm-referenced information provided is supplementary to the criterion-referencedAchievement Level designation and will not be utilized in any manner other than to serve as a barometer ofnational comparison. Only the criterion-referenced scores and Achievement Level designations will be utilizedin the accountability metrics associated with the assessment program (such as student growth measures,educator-effectiveness measures, or the CCRPI).The table on the following page outlines the number and types of items included on the Biology EOCassessment.Georgia Milestones Biology EOC Assessment Guide Copyright 2020 by Georgia Department of Education. All rights reserved.Page 7 of 64
Test StructureBiology EOC Assessment DesignDescriptionNumber ofItemsNumber ofPoints1-point Selected-Response and Technology-Enhanced Items1, 230302-point Technology-Enhanced Items1816Field Test Items340Total442461Technology-Enhanced: Possible variants of the technology-enhanced item types used for Biology include multiple-part selectedresponse, multiple-select, drag-and-drop, and drop-down.21-point Selected-Response and Technology-Enhanced Items: The ratio of selected-response to technology-enhanced items mayvary. The target range of 1-point technology-enhanced items is 0 to 5.3Field Test Items: Field test items may include 1-point selected-response, 1-point technology-enhanced, and 2-point technologyenhanced items.4Total: Of the total 42 items, 38 contribute to the student’s Biology score.The test will be given in two sections. Students may have up to 40 minutes per section to completeSections 1 and 2. The total estimated testing time for the Biology EOC assessment ranges fromapproximately 40 to 80 minutes. Total testing time describes the amount of time students have tocomplete the assessment. It does not take into account the time required for the test examiner tocomplete pre-administration and post-administration activities (such as reading the standardized directionsto students). Sections 1 and 2 may be administered on the same day or across two consecutive daysbased on the district’s testing protocols for the EOC measures (in keeping with state guidance).CONTENT MEASUREDThe Biology EOC assessment will measure the Biology standards that are described atwww.georgiastandards.org.The content of the assessment is organized into five groupings, or domains, of standards for the purposes ofproviding feedback on student performance. A content domain is a reporting category that broadly describesand defines the content of the course, as measured by the EOC assessment. The standards for Biologyare grouped into five domains: Cells, Cellular Genetics and Heredity, Classification and Phylogeny, Ecology,and Theory of Evolution. Each domain was created by organizing standards that share similar contentcharacteristics. The content standards describe the level of expertise that Biology educators should striveto develop in their students. Educators should refer to the content standards for a full understanding of theknowledge, concepts, and skills subject to be assessed on the EOC assessment.Page 8 of 64 Georgia Milestones Biology EOC Assessment GuideCopyright 2020 by Georgia Department of Education. All rights reserved.
Test StructureThe approximate proportional number of points associated with each domain is shown in the followingtable. A range of cognitive levels will be represented on the Biology EOC assessment. Educators shouldalways use the content standards when planning instruction.Biology: Domain Structures and Content WeightsReporting Categories and Content StandardsReporting Category/DomainCellsCellular Genetics & HeredityClassification & PhylogenyEcologyTheory of EvolutionContent Standards AssessedApproximate# of PointsApproximate% of Test920%1123%613%1227%817%46100%SB1(a, b, c, d, e)SB2(a, b, c)SB3(a, b, c)SB4(a, b, c)SB5(a, b, c, d, e)SB6(a, b, c, d, e)TotalGeorgia Milestones Biology EOC Assessment Guide Copyright 2020 by Georgia Department of Education. All rights reserved.Page 9 of 64
Test StructureITEM TYPESOperational items in the Biology EOC assessment consist of selected-response and technology-enhanceditems.A selected-response item, sometimes called a multiple-choice item, is defined as a question, problem, orstatement that is followed by several answer choices, sometimes called options or response choices. Theincorrect choices, called distractors, usually reflect common errors. The student’s task is to choose, fromthe choices provided, the best answer to the question (the stem). The Biology selected-response items willhave four answer choices.A technology-enhanced item is an innovative way to measure student skills and knowledge by usingscaffolding within a multi-step process. Technology-enhanced items are worth one or two points. If the itemis worth two points, partial credit is awarded for special combinations of responses that do not includeall the correct answers. For Biology, there are a number of specific technology-enhanced item types beingused: In multi-select items, the student is asked to pick two correct responses from six answer options.In multi-part items, the student responds to a two-part item that combines multiple-choice questions.For these item types, the student selects the responses from the choices provided.In drag-and-drop items, the student uses a mouse, touchpad, or touchscreen to move responses todesignated areas on the screen.In drop-down menu items, the student uses a mouse, touchpad, or touchscreen to open a drop-downmenu and select an option from the menu. A drop-down menu item may have multiple drop-downmenus.Since some technology-enhanced items in this guide were designed to be used in an online,interactive-delivery format, some of the item-level directions will not appear to be applicable whenworking within the format presented in this document (for example, “Move the characteristics into theboxes” or “Click To Respond”).This iconidentifies special directions that will help the student answer technology-enhanceditems as shown in the format p
Sep 25, 2020 · taking the course and earn course credit (e .g ., “test out”) . In both cases, students are allotted one administration . ASSESSMENT GUIDE The Georgia Milestones Biology EOC Assessment Guide is provided to acquaint Georgia educators and other stakeholders
Algebra 1 EOC, Geometry EOC, Biology EOC, US HistoryEOC NGSSS. 2013-2014; FCAT 2.0 NGSSS. Civics EOC NGSSS; FCAT 2.0 NGSSS. Algebra 1 EOC, Geometry EOC, Biology EOC, US HistoryEOC NGSSS; 2014-2015. PARCC CCSS (M ELA) FCAT 2.0 Science. Civics EOC NGSSS. PARCC CCSS (ELA) Algebra 1 EOC, Geometry EOC CCSS; Biology EOC, US .
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Dec 08, 2020 · English 1 EOC – December 8th Algebra 1 EOC, Biology EOC, US History EOC – December 9th English II EOC – December 10th Make up EOC testing for all approved absences – December 11th The fourth six weeks (Dec. 14th – Jan. 29th) survey is now open and will remai
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BIOLOGY EOC STUDY GUIDE with Practice Questions . 2 . The Biology EOC The Biology 1 EOC assessment is delivered via computer-based test. The assessment is given in one 160 session with a 10 minute break after the first 80 . 106 SC.912.L.17.9 Ecology 107 SC.912.L.17.9 Ecology 108 SC.912.L.17.9 Ecology .
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