2021-22 Milestones test results are in for Hall, Gainesville schools. And overall, they lag behind state scores

Jul. 23—The Georgia Milestones test results released July 22 continue to show evidence of learning loss in Gainesville and Hall County, with both school systems trailing statewide scores.

"We have mixed results," said Kevin Bales, assistant superintendent for Hall County Schools. "We've lost ground overall to the state, and that's always a concern."

Likewise, Gainesville City Schools continues to lag behind the state, said Paula Rufus, director of research and evaluation for Gainesville City Schools.

"Historically," she said, "we've been substantially lower than the state scores. ... Even though we are moving in the right direction, we still are lagging."

Much like last year, state leaders advised against comparing this year's scores to previous years.

In a press release Friday, the Georgia Department of Education said students across the state showed "strong improvement" this year.

"While results have not yet reached pre-pandemic levels, they show that academic recovery is underway in Georgia's public schools," the release stated.

Milestones provides testing data in various subject areas for students third grade through high school.

The tests were not given in spring 2020, and the state relaxed requirements in spring 2021, including lowering the weight of End of Course exams and not holding back students nor evaluating teachers based on test scores.

Rufus said Gainesville doesn't weigh Milestones scores when deciding whether to promote a student to the next grade level. Bales said Hall County uses Milestones scores among other data to make decisions related to grade promotion.

In grades three through eight, Bales said about 56% of students in Hall County read at or above their grade level, compared to the state average of about 63%.

They've also seen scores decline in math, he said, but not nearly as much as reading.

Before the pandemic, Hall County Schools was keeping pace with the state, he said. The number of students reading at or above their grade level has declined by about 8% from pre-pandemic levels.

"So that's a concern," he said.

Rufus said elementary students in Gainesville are making steady improvements.

"All grades in elementary school are headed back toward those pre-pandemic scores," she said.

She added, though, that they are still facing some challenges in Gainesville Middle School.

"We saw a little bit of increase in some areas of math (sixth and seventh grades), but we're still working towards getting back up to where we were in pre-pandemic," she said.

On a positive note, Bales said Hall County's rankings haven't shifted that much compared to school districts around the state.

The school system has also returned to very high levels of participation, he said, and high schoolers are performing well, scoring near the middle out of about 190 school districts statewide.

The longer students stay in Hall County, he said, the more they improve.

With higher participation rates this year, school leaders have a better idea of how the pandemic has affected Milestones scores and contributed to learning loss.

Again, the more at-risk students continued to struggle as a result of the pandemic.

"What I think is happening there — and I think everything I've seen data-wise supports it — is that our most at-risk kids have really struggled coming through the pandemic, and they've really struggled in their performance on the Milestones," Bales said.

Schools in less affluent areas, and schools with high numbers of English language learners, have struggled the most, he said.

"We definitely see in our numbers that our most at-risk schools, our highest poverty schools, our high English-learner populated schools, definitely have had some struggles with regard to reading on grade level and numeracy with math," he said.

Still, Bales has a "high degree of confidence" that they will catch up with state scores on reading and improve in other areas.

And he noted that some grade levels and some elementary schools have performed well in reading, including third grade Spout springs, fourth grade at Mount Vernon and fifth grade at Wauka Mountain Multiple Intelligences Academy.

In reading, those students scored in the top 15-20% of the schools across the state, he said.

He said they will look at those schools and draw lessons for others that struggled. Additionally, he said he will present a plan at the next school board meeting to improve literacy in the district.

"I feel like we're really well positioned to make a huge gain and try to bridge those gaps that we have with the state percentages," he said.