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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a series of articles that will take a deeper dive into Baldwin County's Georgia Milestones Assessment System scores.
In journalism, the word "shocking" in a headline generally is considered clickbait.
In this case, however, it's not clickbait or hyperbole to call the recently-released Georgia Milestones scores at Oak Hill Middle "shocking."
A majority of the 353 eighth graders at Oak Hill tested during the previous school year were "reading below grade level," according to the school's Milestone scores. That percentage – 51.3 – ranked 198th out of 210 school systems in Georgia (the 6th percentile), as well as 152nd out of 159 "county school systems" in Georgia.
In the subject of reading, Baldwin County School District eighth graders finished one spot ahead of the Georgia Fugees Academy, which is "public charter school designed to meet the needs of refugee and new American students."
Screenbgrab from the Georgia Milestones Assessment System's website
Each of the systems that finished below Baldwin in the subject of reading was a smaller system. Out of the 80 Georgia school systems to test at least 300 eighth graders, the Baldwin County School District finished in last place at 80th.
A brighter spot for the BCSD was in social studies, where Baldwin County finished in 151st place and bested out 70 other school systems. A total of 20.8 percent of the eighth graders tested in social studies were "proficient."
The eighth grade math scores were better than the reading scores. A total of 17.1 percent of Oak Hill eighth graders were "proficient" in math, which ranked 170th out of 210 systems. Out of the 80 school systems in Georgia to test at least 300 eighth graders, Baldwin finished in 75th.
In the subject of science, meanwhile, eighth graders in the BCSD finished 189th with a 9.5 percent "proficient" score. This ranked 144th out of 159 county school systems.
The Georgia Milestones Test, according to its website, "measures how well students have learned the knowledge and skills outlined in the state-adopted content standards in English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies."
Added the website: "The end-of-course measures are administered at the completion of the course, regardless of the grade level. Middle school students who are enrolled in one or more of these courses are required to take the associated end-of-course (EOC) measure. These measures serve as the final exam for the course and contribute a percentage of the student’s final course grade."
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