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Test scores

Hightower Trail Middle School · Marietta, GA
See how it ranks: all Georgia schools by score · Cobb County schools by score

Georgia Milestones, SY 2024-25

All grades, all students. % Proficient or Distinguished.
English Language Arts
71.8%
State avg 40.1%
District avg 48.1%
County avg 48.0%
+0.2pp since 2021-22
Mathematics
79.2%
State avg 44.6%
District avg 52.2%
County avg 52.0%
+0.5pp since 2021-22
Science
53.0%
State avg 40.6%
District avg 47.0%
County avg 46.3%
+0.3pp since 2021-22
Social Studies
66.3%
State avg 39.3%
District avg 48.7%
County avg 48.3%
+10.2pp since 2021-22

What this means: On the Georgia Milestones, Georgia's statewide test, about 72 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level, about 79 of 100 do math at grade level, about 53 of 100 are at grade level in science, and about 66 of 100 are at grade level in social studies. Across all Georgia schools, those numbers are about 40, 45, 41, and 39. Reading and writing scores have held steady since 2021, while math scores have held steady, science scores have held steady, and social studies scores are up about 10 points.

BeatsExpectations

Demographically-adjusted score · methodology
Tier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
72.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
72.1%
based on GA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+0.6pp
above demographic expectation

What this means: About 73% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 72% typical for Georgia schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Georgia's top nor bottom 10%.

BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →

By grade, SY 2024-25

School score vs state average per tested grade.
GradeEnglish Language ArtsMathematicsScienceSocial Studies
SchoolStaten testedSchoolStaten testedSchoolStaten testedSchoolStaten tested
Grade 674.6%41.4%30373.3%37.7%303N/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
Grade 772.9%40.9%31471.7%40.6%314N/A0.0%N/AN/A0.0%N/A
Grade 867.8%40.1%31181.7%47.7%31153.0%29.0%14966.3%39.3%311
Grade HSN/AN/AN/A100.0%49.1%159N/A46.2%N/AN/AN/AN/A

4-year history

All grades, all students. Hightower Trail   Georgia avg

English Language Arts

39722021-2240752022-2342762023-2440722024-25
YearSchoolDistrictCountyState
SY 2024-2571.8%48.1%48.0%40.1%
SY 2023-2476.1%51.4%50.9%41.8%
SY 2022-2375.1%49.8%49.2%39.6%
SY 2021-2271.5%48.4%47.6%38.5%

Mathematics

38792021-2239792022-2343822023-2445792024-25
YearSchoolDistrictCountyState
SY 2024-2579.2%52.2%52.0%44.6%
SY 2023-2481.5%52.1%51.8%42.9%
SY 2022-2379.0%47.2%46.8%39.0%
SY 2021-2278.7%48.1%47.8%38.2%

Science

39532021-2238492022-2339512023-2441532024-25
YearSchoolDistrictCountyState
SY 2024-2553.0%47.0%46.3%40.6%
SY 2023-2450.6%46.5%45.6%38.9%
SY 2022-2349.0%46.6%45.3%38.5%
SY 2021-2252.7%47.1%46.1%39.3%

Social Studies

38562021-2236692022-2338692023-2439662024-25
YearSchoolDistrictCountyState
SY 2024-2566.3%48.7%48.3%39.3%
SY 2023-2468.6%46.4%45.9%37.6%
SY 2022-2368.9%44.6%43.1%36.2%
SY 2021-2256.1%43.9%43.3%37.6%

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How to read these scores

What is Georgia Milestones?
Georgia public-school students in grades 3 through 8 take the Georgia Milestones End-of-Grade (EOG) tests in English Language Arts, Math, Science (grades 5/8), and Social Studies (grade 8). High school students take End-of-Course (EOC) Milestones in American Literature, Algebra, Biology, and US History.
What does "% Proficient or Distinguished" mean?
It is the percentage of students at the school who scored at "Proficient Learner" or "Distinguished Learner" on Georgia Milestones (top 2 of 4 performance levels: Beginning, Developing, Proficient, Distinguished). Proficient and above means the student is performing at or beyond grade level. A higher number is better.
What does 71.8% mean for English Language Arts at Hightower Trail Middle School?
It means about 71.8 percent of students tested at Hightower Trail Middle School performed at grade level or above on the Georgia Milestones English Language Arts test in 2024-25. The statewide average for Georgia that year was 40.1%. The other students fell into the lower performance levels.
How is the state average calculated?
It is a weighted average, not a simple average of each school's number. We multiply each public school's score by how many of its students tested, add those together for all schools in Georgia, and divide by the total students tested that year. This way a big school with 1,500 students counts more than a small school with 50 students, which is the right way to ask "how did the typical student do this year?". District and county averages on this page use the same method, just scoped to that district or county.
Where does this data come from?
Georgia Department of Education + Governor's Office of Student Achievement (GOSA), Georgia Milestones Assessment System (GMAS) End-of-Grade (grades 3-8) and End-of-Course (high school) assessments. School-level results from the GOSA Downloadable Data Repository. Headline metric is the cumulative "Proficient or Distinguished Learner" rate (top 2 of 4 Milestones performance levels).
How often is it updated?
Georgia Milestones is administered once a year (spring). Results are released by the state in the summer or early fall. We refresh this page after each annual release.

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