Two years ago, redefinED wrote about the significant drops in both national NAEP scores and Georgia Milestones scores during the 2021-22 school year. We cautioned about the gaps continuing to grow. “With the lingering impact of COVID-19 on students’ proficiency,” we wrote, “we must all move with urgency to support students, encourage bold and innovative ways to accelerate learning and close the opportunity gap.”

Georgia Milestones ELA scores for the 2023-24 school year are now available, and they show improvement statewide. Atlanta Public Schools ELA proficiency increased by 2.2 percentage points, and Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, and Fulton school districts also had similar gains. However, the district – like the metro area more broadly – is still behind its pre-pandemic achievement levels.

A handful of schools that serve students in Atlanta stood out for their exceptional year-over-year growth in ELA, including these schools that earned an increase of over 8 percentage points each: 

• Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School
• Fred A. Toomer Elementary School
• Barack and Michelle Obama Academy 
• Bazoline E. Usher Collier Heights Elementary
• KIPP Vision Primary Charter School
• Tuskegee Airmen Global Academy 
• Resurgence Hall Middle Academy
• Amana Academy West Atlanta

   

Unfortunately, other schools in APS and across the metro area saw a regression.

Metro Atlanta still has a lot of work to do:

• New data shows that learning loss and other enduring effects of the pandemic may be impacting the youngest students the most nationwide. 
• In the latest Milestones results, we already see evidence of this trend in APS and surrounding counties, with gains by 8th-grade students outpacing gains by 3rd-grade students. 
• While the strongest literacy gains came among 5th-grade students, 3rd-grade students (who would have been in the pivotal transition grade of kindergarten during the height of the pandemic) showed a slight decline. 
• This continues the trend from 2022, when over half of third-grade students were not ready to progress to fourth grade. 

Both state and APS schools have been working to address early-grade literacy gaps. Teachers are currently training to implement new literacy standards that will take effect during the 2025-26 school year and more closely align Georgia schools with the science of reading and structured literacy instruction. The state has also invested $6 million to hire literacy coaches in rural and other low-income districts and new literacy training programs like Let’s READ, Georgia! have been successfully launched. Additionally, the new APS superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson has emphasized his commitment to prioritize every student’s right to read in his new 100-day plan. 

These encouraging signs are reasons to double down on these efforts, not ease up. Getting back to pre-pandemic levels will be significant, but we can’t pretend that these pre-pandemic levels were satisfactory. There is plenty of room for improvement, and now is the time to move forward together. To continue being bold and innovative to accelerate learning and close the gaps for all students. To give every student opportunities, a sense of well-being, and self-determination. 

Our goal should not be to return to pre-pandemic proficiencies but to envision a better future for all Atlanta students.