The CRCT-M is a grade-level alternate assessment for eligible students who receive special education services. The program has been designed to meet federal requirements under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. According to federal regulations, all students, including those receiving special education services, must be assessed on grade-level content standards. States may design an alternate assessment based on modified academic achievement standards for those students who struggle, due to their disability, to demonstrate grade-level proficiency in the same timeframe as their peers. Georgia has created the CRCT-M as an avenue for these students to demonstrate what they have learned.

The CRCT-M assesses the same grade-level Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) as the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT). The CRCT-M is available in the content areas of reading, English language arts, and mathematics in grades 3 through 8. Eligible students must participate in the Science and Social Studies CRCT as the CRCT-M is not offered in those content areas. Items on the CRCT-M have been edited and/or enhanced to increase the accessibility for the eligible students, allowing them to demonstrate more consistently what they know and can do.

All students must participate in Georgia’s state mandated testing program. In elementary and middle school grades, special education students may take the CRCT, the CRCT-M, or the Georgia Alternate Assessment (GAA) depending upon the severity of disability and the interaction of the disability with the content. Each student’s Individual Educational Program (IEP) team determines which test the students will participate in, using guidelines developed by committees of Georgia educators. For the CRCT-M, the determination is made by subject or content area. A student’s disability may impact one content area, such as reading, but not another, such as mathematics. The IEP team must carefully consider how the student’s disability interacts with each content area and whether the disability precludes the student from demonstrating grade-level proficiency rather than some other mitigating factor. Importantly, an eligible student must be receiving instruction based on the GPS for the grade level in which he/she is enrolled. Additionally, his or her IEP must include goals that support the student’s access to the subject area curriculum standards.