Georgia Set to Replace CRCT with Georgia Milestones

CRCT vs. Georgia Milestones

After 14 years, the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test will no longer be offered to Georgia students. A new test, called Georgia Milestone, will take its place this upcoming school year. The new test hasn’t been fully developed, but it is expected to be different than the CRCT. Here is a brief look at some of those differences:

Cost

- The CRCT and end-of-course testing cost roughly $18 million to administer last year

- Georgia Milestones is expected to cost more; precise figures are not yet available

Content

- The CRCT was multiple-choice and graded by a computer

- Georgia Milestones will have more open-ended questions that will have to be graded by people

Administration

- About 35 percent of the CRCT was administered online in Georgia last year

- State education officials expect that Georgia Milestones will be administered entirely online by its fifth year

Student Scores

- The state’s standard for content mastery on the CRCT was among the lowest in the nation

- Georgia is raising the content-mastery standard for Georgia Milestones

Georgia Milestones Features include: 

– inclusion of constructed-response items in ELA and 
mathematics, in addition to selected-response items 
– inclusion of a writing component (in response to text) at 
every grade level and course within the ELA assessment; 
– inclusion of norm-referenced items in every grade and 
content area to complement the criterion-referenced 
information and to provide a national comparison; and 
– transition to online administration over time, with online 
administration considered the primary mode of 
administration and paper-pencil back-up until transition is 
completed. 

Georgia Milestones Blended: 

Criterion-Referenced and Norm-Referenced 

Georgia Milestones will provide: 
– criterion-referenced performance information in the form 
of four performance levels, depicting students’ mastery of 
state standards 

– norm-referenced performance information in the form of 
national percentiles, depicting how students’ achievement 

compares to peers nationally

Georgia Milestones English Language Arts 

– will require close analytic reading to construct meaning, 
make inferences, draw conclusions, compare and contrast 
ideas, themes, etc., as well as synthesize ideas and 
concepts across multiple texts 
– will require students to develop informative/explanatory 
responses or narratives, produce opinions/arguments – 
citing evidence from text(s) and using standard language 
conventions, etc. 
Mathematics [CC Georgia Performance Standards] 
– will require demonstration of conceptual understanding of 
concepts, procedural skills and fluency, problem solving, 

modeling, and mathematical reasoning 

Science [Georgia Performance Standards]
– will require understanding of the core concepts, ideas, and 
practices of science to explain scientific phenomena – 
with content and Characteristics of Science/Nature of 
Science standards serving as co-requisites 

Social Studies [Georgia Performance Standards] 
– will require understanding of the past and its influence on 
the present and future – including the interconnectedness 
of history, culture, geography, economics, and 

governments/civics 

Item Types 
• Selected-Response [aka, multiple-choices] 
– all content areas 
– evidence-based selected response in ELA 
• Constructed-Response 
– ELA and mathematics 
• Extended-Response 

– ELA and mathematics