Five takeaways from Gwinnett County’s Georgia Milestones results

State education officials Thursday released data that showed how public school students performed last Spring on its Georgia Milestones exams.

Here are five takeaways from how Gwinnett County students fared:

• A higher percentage of Gwinnett students scored "proficient learner or above" than the statewide average on the math and English/Language Arts exams. On several grade levels, about one-half of Gwinnett students scored "proficient learner or better." The statewide average was about 40 percent for most grade levels.
• Fewer Gwinnett students had below-average scores. The percentage of Gwinnett students rated as "beginning learner," the lowest category, dropped from last year on most grade levels. 
• Many eighth-graders had problems with math. There was a five percentage point increase in beginning learners among eighth-graders in math. District officials noted that the majority of Gwinnett students now take the Algebra End Of Course exam in place of the eighth grade math End Of Grade test and those results are not included in the calculation.
• Speaking of Algebra, about 47 percent of Gwinnett test-takers scored proficient or distinguished. That's up from 45 percent during the prior school year.
• The awards for some of the most-improved schools go to:  Corley Elementary and Radloff Middle. The percentage of Corley third-graders who scored proficient learner or better in English rose from about 23 percent to 35 percent. At Radloff, the percentage of eighth-graders who were proficient or better in math increased from about 7 percent to more than 17 percent.