edCount recently completed a comprehensive alignment evaluation of the Georgia Milestones Assessment System in English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies for the Georgia Department of Education (GA DOE). The GA DOE submitted our report on this evaluation as part of its federal peer review package and successfully met all criteria related to alignment. This evaluation supported content-related validity through a comprehensive examination of the relationships between the academic content standards, the specifications of the content domain, test items, and achievement level descriptors (ALDs). A portion of this alignment evaluation involved bringing together a panel of experts with content expertise and expertise in serving students with disabilities and students who are English learners to evaluate the standards, items, and ALDs along with the relationships between each. The methodology was based on Dr. Ellen Forte’s publications on the topic of alignment evaluation (2013, 2017) and was presented at the 2017 National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) Conference in San Antonio, Texas. To read more about this methodology, click here.
