Georgia’s public school students showed their largest-ever performance gains on the 5-year-old Georgia Milestones assessment this spring, according to the Georgia Department of Education.
Student scores this spring increased or held steady on 25 of 26 assessments. The percentage of students reading on grade level or above increased or held steady in every tested grade and in both English language arts high school courses, a release states.
“We continue to see increased student performance across indicators – from Georgia Milestones to the SAT and ACT, graduation rate and the number of students finishing high school with an industry-recognized credential,” state school Superintendent Richard Woods said in the release. “This is a testament to the hard work of Georgia’s teachers and students, and an increasing focus on educating the whole child and providing a genuinely well-rounded education.
“While these gains are worth celebrating, we cannot be all about the test – our job is to prepare students for life,” Woods said. “I continue to support a reduction of state assessment requirements to the federal minimum and more realistic and reasonable accountability requirements.”
The largest increases were in ninth-grade literature (increased 9 points), sixth-grade ELA (increased 7 points), third-grade math (increased 6 points) and third-grade ELA (increased 5 points).