Clayton County Schools saw many of its students falling further behind in the second year of a standardized test with tougher standards meant to help better prepare students for colleges and careers.
Across the district, overall proficiency dropped for students tested in grades 3, 4, 6 and 7. Eighth-grade proficiency improved 8 percentage points.
Tuesday afternoon, Clayton County Public Schools officials released a statement on the findings:
“As we looked to this most recent round of Georgia Milestones assessments, the state superintendent of schools said these tests were different, advising that our teachers and students have to get use to a different level of rigor. The report released today shows some improvement in various content areas. The report also shows areas in which students and schools need support. Clayton County Public Schools will continue efforts to promote student growth across the school district.”
Across the state, students showed improvement during 2016 Georgia Milestones testing in most subject areas, with the percentage of students achieving the “proficient achiever” score increasing in 23 of the 32 tests.
Georgia Milestones was implemented during the 2014-2015 school year as a harder test to ensure the state’s students were better prepared for college and careers.
This was to be the first year where students could be held back for failing the tests. However, glitches during testing will allow schools to use their judgment in whether to hold a student back for low performance. The state Department of Education will still use the scores in grading school performance.
Parents of students who fail the reading exam in third, fifth and eighth grade must have a conference with their school about repeating the grade. The same goes for students who fail math in fifth and eighth grade. The tests also count for a fifth of the grade in high school courses.
For more on Georgia Milestones, go to myAJC.com. The raw state data is available on the state Department of Education website.
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