Atlanta Schools Show Gains In New Georgia Milestones Report

ATLANTA — Atlanta Public School students showed progress in academic proficiency based on the latest Georgia Milestones test results. The district said it achieved year-over-year gains in the percentage of students scoring proficient and above on 21 of 24 (88%) End-of-Grade and End-of-Course assessments. The district saw gains on 75% of tests in 2018 and 52% in 2017.

Eighty percent of APS schools achieved increases in the percentage of students scoring proficient and above on End-of-Grade assessments, while 76% of APS schools achieved increases in the percentage of grade 9-12 students scoring proficient and above on End-of-Course assessments. All 17 APS schools that received targeted or partnership support as part of the initial cohort of the APS turnaround strategy have improved their Milestones proficiency rates since 2016.

In 2019, APS also achieved year-on-year gains in the percentage of students scoring proficient and above on all eight EOC tests. The largest year-over-year increases were in Physical Science (+9.7 percentage points), Algebra I (+8.6 percentage points), and Ninth Grade Literature & Composition (+7.9 percentage points).

Overall, Georgia students showed strong gains on the spring 2019 Georgia Milestones assessments, according to figures released Friday morning by the Georgia Department of Education. Scores increased or held steady on 25 of 26 assessments, which officials said were the strongest overall gains recorded in the five years the assessment has been administered. The percentage of students reading on grade level or above increased or held steady in every tested grade and both English language arts high school courses.

Read: Students Record Strongest-Ever Overall Gains On GA Milestones

“A strong K-12 education system is essential to keeping Georgia the best state in the nation to live, work, and raise a family,” Gov. Brian Kemp said. “These strong results show impressive improvements in Georgia’s public schools, and I commend the educators and students of our state for their hard work.”