After two uneven years of Georgia Milestones testing results due to COVID-19 disruptions, the 2021-22 scores released Friday by the state Department of Education painted a more complete picture of student achievement.
Elementary, middle and high schools in East Cobb turned out some of the best overall and grade- and subject-specific results in the Cobb County School District and the state.
According to information sent out by the Cobb school district, 73.7 percent of Cobb students taking the Milestones tests read at or above their grade level, slightly ahead of Fulton County and the highest in metro Atlanta.
Cobb students also outpaced their peers in other nearby districts with the highest average of “proficient” learners across multiple grade levels and subjects.
Students in grades 3-12 are categorized in one of four levels: Level 1 is Beginning Learner, Level 2 is a Developing Learner, Level 3 is a Proficient Learner and Level 4 is Distinguished Learner.
The evaluations are based on End of Grade (EOG) tests at the elementary and middle school levels, and End of Course (EOC) tests at the high school level.
An even 80 percent of Cobb students are “proficient” or above in English Language Arts, 80.7 percent in math, 75.4 percent in science, and 81.7 in social students.
That averages out to 79.6 across all subjects and grade levels, higher than Fulton, Marietta, DeKalb and Atlanta.
In grade-level scores, several elementary schools in East Cobb were at or near the top of the list in Georgia with the highest percentage of readers at or above third-grade reading levels.
Tritt third graders posted a third-grade reading score of 98.4 percent, and four of the top 10 elementary schools in the state in overall reading scores were Mt. Bethel (576), Timber Ridge (574), Mountain View (571), and Sope Creek (568).
“No one should make comparisons to previous year’s results in Cobb or across the state. The impacts of the pandemic over the last couple of years make it impossible to do so in a reliable way,” John Floresta, the Cobb Schools Chief Strategy and Accountability Officer, said in the district release.
“We know our students are doing well compared to their peers, and we are focused on what each student knows and what they need to learn.”
The Cobb figures do compare favorably to 2018-19, the last full school year before the pandemic.
In 2021-22, middle school students in Cobb outpaced students in metro Atlanta school districts, including averaging 16 percentage points higher in eighth-grade physics and more than 15 percent in high school history.
More than half of all Walton High School students tested in biology (57.6 percent) achieved distinguished learner status. At Dickerson Middle School, 97.2 percent of students tested in alegbra earned the same designation.
On the other hand, some East Cobb schools face challenges in some areas. Only 52 percent of Brumby Elementary School third-graders were reading at or above grade level, and fewer than half of the students tested in algebra at Sprayberry, Wheeler and Kell high schools are considered at or above proficiency levels.
Here’s more of a breakdown on the Milestones assessments from the Georgia DOE, including state, school system and school level scores from both last winter semester and the past spring semester.
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