‘Performed impressively within top 20 school districts’; McIntosh leads county in Distinguished Learners category
The second year of the the Georgia Milestones assessment is in. Results show Fayette County schools scoring in the Top 20 school systems in the state and close to the top in metro Atlanta.
“In the aggregate across all subject areas, Fayette County performed impressively within the Top 20 school districts throughout the state. However, on some subject-area tests Fayette County’s students performed within the top 10 statewide,” said Assistant Superintendent of Student Achievement Terry Oatts.
Georgia Milestones is divided into four achievement levels. Those include Beginning Learners, Developing Learners, Proficient Learners and Distinguished Learners.
Berry-Dreisbach said more Fayette students are scoring at grade level or better on standardized assessments given through the Georgia Milestones Assessment System, according to 2016 scores released by the Georgia Department of Education.
The county’s percentage of students achieving at Proficient Learner and above increased for 27 of the 32 tests given, with the highest gains in third grade math, science, and social studies; fifth grade social studies; sixth grade math; seventh grade math, science, and social studies; eighth grade math, science, and social studies; Ninth Grade Literature and Composition; American Literature and Composition; Analytic Geometry; Biology; Economics; and U.S. History.
Students who achieve “proficient” or better are considered to be on track to being college and career ready, said school system spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach.
In many instances for 2016, McIntosh High in the eight subject areas had the largest percentage of Distinguished Learners followed by Starr’s Mill High, Whitewater High, Sandy Creek High and Fayette County High. The significant differences between the percentage scores in the four categories from the five high schools was not presented or discussed at the meeting.
High school Milestones results from the county’s high schools by subject area and comparing results from 2015 and 2016 is provided on the school system website (https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/Meetings/ViewMeetingOrder.aspx?S=4067&MID=53179).
Double-digit increases occurred in eighth grade social studies (11.9 percent increase), Analytic Geometry (11.4 percent increase), American Literature and Composition (16.1 percent increase), and Economics (24.7 percent increase).
“Over 60 percent of students are now performing at or above grade level on these tests. Last year, roughly 40 to 50 percent were performing at or above grade level,” Berry-Dreisbach said.
Over 50 to nearly 70 percent of Fayette’s students at all grade levels and subjects tested were shown to be performing at the “Proficient Learner and above” achievement level, said Berry-Dreisbach. Test scores also tracked well above those of the state, ranging from 10 to 26 percentage points higher.
“Students began taking Georgia Milestones assessments in 2014-15. The new testing system is one comprehensive program across grades 3-12 and includes open-ended questions to better gauge students’ content mastery,” said Berry-Dreisbach.
In 2015-16, students in grades three through eight were tested in English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. In grades nine through 12, students enrolled in Ninth Grade Literature and Composition, American Literature and Composition, Coordinate Algebra, Analytic Geometry, Algebra I, Geometry, Biology, Physical Science, U.S. History, and/or Economics took a Georgia Milestones End of Course assessment.
“Clearly, our teachers are to be commended for affording our students rigorous and relevant learning experiences that enable them to successfully meet the increasing demands of more rigorous assessment,” Oatts said.
