COASTAL OBSERVER

Georgetown County School District officials are optimistic that there will be a rise in scores on the 2025-26 state standardized tests after review of the midyear data.

The district set goals to have 80 percent of first- and second-graders on track for success, 55 percent of grades three to five and 50 percent of grades six to eight meeting or exceeding state assessment standards by 2027.

Deputy Superintendent Sherri Forrest said there is an overall upward trend to meet that goal, which is what the district wants to see from the beginning to the middle of the school year. 

“That’s exactly what you want because then it’ll mirror what they will do on the state assessment,” she said.

Materials that tested and graded students at a less rigorous level were removed from the district’s schools at the beginning of the year, Forrest said.

“Within the next few months, this data will increase because some of that work was below grade level,” she said. “If we never expose them to grade level standards, they’re always going to stay below. Those standards are really, really important.”

The district tests students from third to eighth grades three times a year to assess if they are working at grade level. The computer-based iReady program mimics the state assessment format, SCReady, by testing students in math and reading. Science, which is tested by the state, is not tested by iReady.

The state goal is for 75 percent of all students to meet or exceed expectations on the state assessment and 90 percent of students to be approaching those expectations by 2030.

Forrest specialized in school turnarounds in Georgia and Florida prior to being hired at the district. She presented midyear data to the school board last month that compared the national median “typical growth” in proficiency to the district’s median typical growth. 

The schools were not identified in the data the board members received.

Typical growth is the achievement that’s expected from students at their grade level, Forrest explained.

The national median typical growth in mathematics 16 to 18 weeks into the school year is 57 percent. District students in kindergarten to eighth grades exceeded that median at 59 percent.

iReady midyear data projects that there will be an increase in 2025-26 math scores in third, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades. 

The highest increase in the proficiency rate seen in the midyear projections is expected in seventh grade math. Last year, 28 percent were proficient. This year’s projection is 43 percent.

Proficiency in fourth grade math was 48 percent last year. It is projected to decrease by a point.

In all grades combined, the district is 5 points short of the national median in reading, which is 70 percent.

“We have not met the median, but we are on an upper trend as a district,” Forrest said.

Based on the midyear projections, third, fourth and fifth grades will see a decrease in reading scores. Grades six through eight are projected to score higher in reading than on last year’s assessment, with the largest increase in eighth grade: up from 48 percent to 62 percent proficiency.

Board Member Robert Cox asked why the fourth grade math proficiency declined.

The projections are based on students having the bare minimum in typical growth, Forrest said. There are also adjustments being made with new math standards and resources that teachers are using this year.

“Typically, our state score ends up being higher than what our iReady score is in many of the bucket areas,” she said.

Board Member Patti Hammel said the data varies because last year’s scores represent students who have since advanced a grade level.

“We can’t look at them as digressing. They’re not the same group of children that scored that score last year. They’re a different group of children,” Hammel said.

Superintendent Bethany Giles said there is no  definitive reason why some grades are projected to decrease in proficiency. She said she has observed a skill development gap that ultimately creates a content gap.

“The gap, unfortunately, is widening when we see the skill development may not be where it needs to be in the early grades,” Giles said. “If students have experienced skill gaps in early grades, they don’t necessarily have the skill capacity to be able to learn or perform at grade level in the middle school grades.”

“That’s what we notice a lot,” said Fedrick Cohens, the district’s executive director for academics. Students are behind in grade level.

To fill that gap, Forrest said that the district is working with teachers and their standards and lesson plans, and making sure classroom resources are aligned with the rigor of the state’s standard. Every year the expectations get higher and higher for the students, she said.

“The rigor increases, and so we just need to make sure that students have all the supports they need in front of them,” Forrest said. “It’s going to take a bit to get there, but we’re moving in the right direction.”

Cohens agreed. He said that all schools in the district have access to the same resources.

“That levels the playing field right there,” he said.