Clarke County School District students achieved several gains in the mathematics portion of the Georgia Milestones last school year with more than a dozen schools across the district seeing an increase in the percentage of students who scored proficient and above.

The data released Monday, Sept. 30, by the Georgia Department of Education follows the July release of English Language Arts (ELA), social studies, and science testing data, which showed CCSD achieving gains in all areas and outpacing the state average for growth in ELA proficiency in grades 3-8. The release of math scores was delayed to allow for time to update the assessments to align them with the new K-12 math standards first implemented during the 2023-24 school year.

In the Milestones testing system, students are scored on a scale that ranges from Beginning, to Developing, Proficient, and Distinguished. In grades 3-8 district-wide for math, CCSD had a 2.5% increase in Proficient and Above from the 2022-23 school year to 2023-24, which was highlighted by a 6.3% increase in fifth-grade students and 4.7% increase in eighth-graders scoring proficient and above. There was also a 3.8% increase in CCSD high school students scoring proficient or above on the Algebra end-of-course test.

Among the individual school highlights on the math portion of the Milestones, Cleveland Road Elementary School saw a nearly 17-point year-to-year jump in students scoring proficient or above, while Clarke Central had a 10.2% increase. Oglethorpe Avenue Elementary, J.J. Harris Elementary, Whit Davis Elementary, Whitehead Road Elementary, Fowler Drive Elementary, Clarke Middle, Gaines Elementary, Bettye H. Holston Elementary, Barnett Shoals Elementary, Coile Middle, and Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle also saw increases. Meanwhile, Johnnie Lay Burks and Timothy Road elementary schools remained above 50% of students scoring proficient and above.

“I am very pleased with the improvements in mathematics performance across our schools,” said Dr. Jennifer Scott, Deputy Superintendent of Academics and Student Support for CCSD. “These gains can be attributed to the focused coaching provided to teachers by our instructional coaches in collaboration with the content coordinators and our curriculum resource professional developers. This support ensures that our teachers are prepared to deliver strong instruction daily to our students.”

Full Milestones results for CCSD and the state are available here and through this interactive dashboard.