Gwinnett Daily Post

SUWANEE -- The Gwinnett County Board of Education will conduct its annual Elementary and Middle School Gateway Review this week.

At its monthly meeting Thursday, the school board will decide whether to waive local promotion requirements for students who did not do as well as expected on standardized tests based on their classroom grades.

The vast majority of the more than 46,000 fourth-, fifth-, seventh- and eighth-graders earned passing scores on the county's mandatory Gateway tests and were promoted to the next grade level.

Gwinnett County Public Schools requires fourth- and seventh-grade students to pass each section of the state's Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests to be promoted to the next grade level. Additionally, the school system requires fifth- and eighth-graders to pass the Georgia Writing Assessments.

The state only requires third-graders to pass the reading portion of the CRCT and fifth- and eighth-graders to pass the reading and math portions of the CRCT to be promoted.

In the school system's annual Assessment Review Procedure, committees of teachers, principals and central office administrators review the records of any student with a minimum of a C semester average in the subjects tested by the Gateway who failed any part of the Gateway test.

The school board will meet in executive session Thursday to conduct the review. Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks will give a report of the review during the 7 p.m. business meeting.

The board's meeting will be held in the board room of the Instructional Support Center, 437 Old Peachtree Road N.W., Suwanee. Before the 7 p.m. meeting, the board will hold a 6:30 p.m. open forum for anyone who wishes to speak.

To view the complete agenda, visit www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/board.nsf.