The purpose of the Gateway Assessment Program is to measure student progress on
Gwinnett's essential curriculum, the Academic Knowledge and Skills (AKS). The
testing plan was recommended with approval of the GEMS Oversight Committee by the
Superintendent and adopted by the Board of Education in June, 1996. Students will have to
achieve a passing score on the assessments at grades 4, 5, 7, and 8 to be promoted to the
next level. High school students will have to pass the High School Gateway, given first in
the spring of their 10th grade year, before they receive a GCPS diploma.
Who is required to take the Gateways? All students in grades 4, 5, 7, and 8
registered in Gwinnett County Public Schools will be expected to participate in the
elementary and middle school assessment. All high school students will take the assessment
beginning in the spring of their tenth grade year.
Who is required to pass the Gateway Assessments? All students in grades 4, 5, 7,
and 8 are expected to pass the Gateway Assessments. In special circumstances students may
participate with appropriate accommodations or modifications that would be specified in
the Special Education student's IEP or recommended by the ESOL student's SST committee. If
Special Education or ESOL students do not then pass the Gateway, the IEP or SST committee
can determine placement for the next school year. Students with a 504 plan must take and
pass the Gateway at all grade levels. The 504 plan may specify the environmental
conditions for taking the test, but not the requirements. All High School students must
pass the High School Gateway to earn a diploma from Gwinnett County Public Schools.
Levels of Performance: Students' results on the Gateways will be reported in one
of four performance levels. The Superintendent will recommend the cut score or passing
score for each assessment to the Board of Education for adoption in October, 1999. The
four levels of performance from the highest scoring level to the lowest are:
- Demonstrates excellent AKS performance (passing)
- Demonstrates effective AKS performance (passing)
- Demonstrates minimal AKS performance (passing)
- Does not meet Minimal AKS performance (failing)
High School Gateway
Content: The content of the high school Gateway Assessment consists of AKS from the
required ninth and tenth grade courses in science, social studies and language arts.
Specifically, students will be responsible for the AKS in Biology, Chemistry, World
History, and ninth and tenth grade Language Arts.
Contractor: Test Scoring and Reporting Services (TSARS) from UGA have led the
development of the assessment using GCPS teachers as developers, writers, and initial
reviewers.
Format: Students will be required to write two tasks, one about science AKS and
one about social studies AKS. Documents will be provided to help students remember details
of the concepts they have studied. The time for the assessment is 115 minutes for
developing the response, drafting, revising, and copying the final edit.
Reviews: The tasks have been reviewed for content, internally by teachers other
than the writers, externally by UGA content specialists, and parent representatives for
sensitivity and bias.
Scoring: Each student response is scored by at least two raters who do not know
the student name or school. If more than one point separates the score on any feature, the
paper is scored by a third judge.
Scores Reported: Scores will be provided in the fall. Students will be scored
from 2 to 12 for each of 7 features on each task. Based on the initial standard
recommendation, students will have to score 70 out of 132 on language arts for both tasks,
56 out of 120 in science and 60 out of 120 in social studies.
Retakes: Beginning in the fall after the first unsuccessful attempt at passing,
students will be provided the opportunity to take an alternate form of the assessment at
least three times a
