Georgia Code
Part 12 - Effectiveness of Educational Programs
§ 20-2-281. Student Assessments

(b.1) The State Board of Education shall notify local school systems and individual schools of the results of the assessment instruments administered under this Code section at the earliest possible date determined by the state board, but not later than the beginning of the subsequent school year. In the event the state board is unable to provide timely results in the first year of implementation of a substantially new assessment instrument, the provisions in paragraphs (2) and (3) of subsection (b) of Code Section 20-2-283 shall not apply.
History. Code 1981, § 20-2-281 , enacted by Ga. L. 1985, p. 1657, § 1; Ga. L. 1987, p. 1169, § 1; Ga. L. 1991, p. 1543, § 1; Ga. L. 1995, p. 311, § 1; Ga. L. 1995, p. 1302, § 14; Ga. L. 1996, p. 1600, § 2; Ga. L. 2000, p. 618, § 51; Ga. L. 2003, p. 185, § 3; Ga. L. 2004, p. 107, § 7; Ga. L. 2008, p. 807, § 1/HB 637; Ga. L. 2010, p. 186, § 2/HB 400; Ga. L. 2012, p. 358, § 21/HB 706; Ga. L. 2012, p. 775, § 20/HB 942; Ga. L. 2012, p. 893, § 3/SB 289; Ga. L. 2015, p. 21, § 4/HB 91; Ga. L. 2015, p. 1376, § 24/HB 502; Ga. L. 2016, p. 620, § 2/SB 364; Ga. L. 2017, p. 119, § 1/SB 211; Ga. L. 2018, p. 982, § 1/SB 362; Ga. L. 2019, p. 1056, § 20/SB 52; Ga. L. 2020, p. 297, § 1/SB 367.
The 2015 amendments. —
The first 2015 amendment, effective March 30, 2015, rewrote this Code section. The second 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, rewrote this Code section. See Code Commission note regarding the effect of these amendments.
The 2016 amendment, effective July 1, 2016, rewrote this Code section.
The 2017 amendment, effective April 27, 2017, in subsection (a), deleted the commas following “English” and “arts/reading” near the end of the third sentence and near the middle of the subsection, added the fourth and fifth sentences, and in the next-to-last sentence, substituted “to establish and operate an innovative assessment system pursuant to 34 C.F.R. Section 200.104” for “by federal law” near the beginning; and added subsection (t).
The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, in subsection (a), deleted the comma following “shall be selected” in the fourth sentence, substituted “grade-level” for “grade level” in the fifth sentence, in the sixth sentence, substituted “norm referenced” for “norm-referenced” and inserted “local” preceding “school systems”, added the proviso at the end of the eleventh sentence, substituted “states with which” for “states with whom” in the twelfth sentence, and added the proviso at the end of the thirteenth sentence.
The 2019 amendment, effective May 12, 2019, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted “provided that those standards” for “provided those standards” in the second sentence of paragraph (d)(1).
The 2020 amendment, effective August 1, 2020, in subsection (a) substituted “The” for “Further, the” at the beginning of the seventh sentence, substituted “implement programs” for “develop and implement a program of multiple formative assessments” in the eighth sentence, in the eleventh sentence, deleted “, and” following “eight”, deleted “and social studies” following “science” and inserted “and such tests in social studies shall be administered annually to students in grade eight;”, added the twelfth sentence, in the thirteenth sentence, substituted “As” for “Further, as”, inserted “one” following “Education,” substituted “assessment” for “assessments”, substituted “in each of the four” for “for all”, and substituted “and eight”, “and once in grades nine through 12” for “eight, and 11 and may be assessed for students in additional grade levels as designated by the State Board of Education” in the fourteenth sentence; in subsection (b) added the second sentence, inserted “with norm-referenced items” in the fourth sentence, and substituted “the respective chairpersons of the House Education Committee and the Senate Education and Youth Committee” for “the General Assembly” in the fifth sentence; substituted the present provisions of subsection (r) for the former provisions, which read: “In order to maximize classroom instruction time, the State Board of Education shall study and adopt policies beginning with the 2017-2018 school year that will move the end-of-grade and end-of-course assessment testing windows as close to the end of the school year or semester as possible. The Department of Education shall prepare and submit a report to the House Committee on Education and the Senate Education and Youth Committee no later than December 31, 2016, regarding proposed policies and obstacles that prevent testing windows from being scheduled later in the school year or semester. Local school systems are strongly encouraged to administer any such state required assessments within the last week of the school system’s midyear semester, for assessments administered at the end of a midyear semester, and within the last two weeks of the school year for the school system, for assessments administered at the end of the academic year.”; and substituted the present provisions of subsection (t) for the former provisions, which read: “(t)(1) The State Board of Education shall direct the existing assessment workgroup to pursue maximum flexibility for state and local assessments under federal law. Such maximum flexibility shall include, but not be limited to, utilization of nationally recognized college and career ready high school assessments, provided that comparability can be established pursuant to paragraph (2) of this subsection, as well as application for innovative assessment demonstration authority, as provided for in 34 C.F.R. Section 200.104. The state board shall provide a report regarding such no later than September 1, 2017, to the State School Superintendent, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the chairpersons of the Senate Education and Youth Committee and the House Committee on Education and shall post such report on the Department of Education website no later than September 1, 2017.
“(2) The State Board of Education shall conduct a comparability study to determine and establish the concordance of nationally recognized academic assessments, including, but not limited to, the SAT, ACT, and ACCUPLACER with alignment to state content standards in grades nine through 12. Such comparability study shall also determine whether the nationally recognized high school academic assessment provides data that are comparable to current end-of-course assessments and valid and reliable for all subgroups and whether the assessment provides differentiation between schools’ performances as required by the state accountability plan. The state board shall initiate such study no later than July 1, 2017, and shall post such study on the Department of Education website and provide the study to the State School Superintendent, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the chairpersons of the Senate Education and Youth Committee and the House Committee on Education upon completion of the federal review process.”
Code Commission notes.
Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1996, “disabled” was substituted for “handicapped” in the second and fourth sentences of subsection (c).
Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2015, a portion of the amendments to subsections (a) and (g) of this Code section by Ga. L. 2015, p. 21, § 4/HB 91, was treated as impliedly repealed and superseded by Ga. L. 2015, p. 1376, § 24/HB 502 due to irreconcilable conflict.
Editor’s notes.
Ga. L. 2000, p. 618, § 1, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: “This Act shall be known and may be cited as the ‘A Plus Education Reform Act of 2000.’”
Administrative rules and regulations.
Statewide passing score, Official Compilation of the Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia, Georgia Department of Education, Division of General Instruction, Sec. 160-4-2-.13.
Law reviews.
For note on the 2003 amendment to this Code section, see 20 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 147 (2003).
For comment, “Georgia’s Policies Regarding High School Special Education Diplomas: Are Too Many Children Left Behind?,” see 32 Georgia St. U.L. Rev. 755 (2016).

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