By Kathryn Schiliro
Managing Editor

Morgan County's schools are paving the way when it comes to testing.
At the behest of the state, about 40 of the county's fifth graders are participating in the Online Assessment System (OAS) Pilot Assessment. These students are being testing in math, according to Assistant Superintendent Debra White.
The OAS is to become how students take standardized tests– read online and answered online.
Local fifth grade students were selected at random to test questions from a bank of test items that are part of the OAS.
The state is testing varying parts of the OAS with different students in different school systems.
Morgan County teachers and administrators have also visited Decatur City Schools to see how that system is using form of testing– Measures of Academic Progress (MAP).
MAP could be used for students in grades three to six about three times a year to predict how students would fare on a standardized test like the Criterion Referenced Competency Tests (CRCTs), thus helping teachers tailor their lessons depending on the outcome of these MAP assessments, also given electronically.

Printed in the March 14, 2013 edition