Georgia students are doing better in math than they were last year ― though less than half of students tested scored proficient or better on the state’s annual Milestones assessment.
The scores released Monday by the Georgia Department of Education provide the first look at how students took to the state’s newest approach to math education. The overhauled standards were put into practice during the 2023-2024 school year for the first time. State officials say the improved scores are because of those changes.
Georgia recruited teachers to help rewrite the math standards in 2019, but the effort was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The updates aim to put math in a real-life context and give students more time to fully grasp new concepts, officials said. Some of the biggest changes happened in eighth grade, said Allison Timberlake, the state’s deputy superintendent of assessment and accountability, in a call with reporters about the results.
“I hate to say ‘simplification,’ but I’ll say it anyways,” she said. “The simplification of the standards ... really let teachers and students go deeper into that content, and I think we saw that reflected in students’ performance on the test.”
Eighth graders and students who took algebra saw the largest gains. There was an 8 point increase in the percentage of eighth graders and students who took algebra who scored proficient or better on the math Milestones exam, compared to last year’s scores. The scores for eighth graders increased 9 points compared to those in 2019, before the pandemic.
Still, less than half of the state’s eighth graders ― 44% — scored proficient or higher on the math exam. Eighth grade is a closely-watched year for math scores. It’s critical that students who are aiming for careers in engineering or other technical fields master the content by then, experts say.
In metro Atlanta, more than 50% of eighth graders in larger school districts such as Cherokee, Cobb, Forsyth, Fulton and Gwinnett counties scored proficient or better.
In Gwinnett County, the state’s largest school system, the percentage of eighth graders who scored proficient or better increased by 35 points compared to 2019. Roughly 57% of eighth graders were proficient or better, compared to just 22% in 2019.
Third graders, the youngest students to take the Milestones exams, were the only grade level that saw a slight decline in proficiency rates compared to last year and lag behind pre-pandemic scores. In 2024, 45.4% of the state’s third graders scored proficient or better; in 2023, it was 45.6%, and in 2019, it was 52%. Third grade scores in most metro Atlanta school systems followed similar trends. Fourth graders had the highest statewide proficient or better rate at 48% — though that’s still 1 point shy of their rate in 2019.
Proficiency rates for most grades have yet to hit pre-pandemic levels.
Like most states, Georgia’s math scores dipped between 2019 and 2022, according to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which publishes “the nation’s report card.” The dip in Georgia’s scores during that period wasn’t unusual: Eighth grade math scores dropped significantly in every state but Utah. The state’s average scores were within a point or two of the national public school average in every area.
State officials reported that with the new scores, Georgia students are performing above the national average.
“Our students are performing well,” Timberlake said. “I think our hope is that these new math standards are promising, and we’ll continue to see gains in math as students are able to really dig in deeper.”
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