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 51.6% mean for English Language Arts at South Columbia Elementary School?
It means about 51.6 percent of students tested at South Columbia Elementary School performed at grade level or above on the Georgia Milestones English Language Arts test in 2023-24. The statewide average for Georgia that year was 41.8%. 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.
