Bibb Schools Superintendent optimistic despite low proficiency levels

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT)- The 2015 Georgia Milestones Results were released Monday and despite low proficiency scores, the Bibb School System is optimistic for the future. 

Bibb Schools Superintendent Dr. Curtis L. Jones Jr. said in a news release “Strategic work has been planned to analyze results to determine root causes and next steps for improvement.”

The results are reported by four different “proficiency levels”- Beginning learner, Developing Learner, Proficient Learner, and Distinguished Learner. The goal is to have students be in the “Proficient Learner” and “Distinguished Learner”. This is considered “passing”. The total percent of Bibb students who were Proficient and Distinguised (“Passing”) was below 15% in numerous categories. 

Dr. Jones thinks the new categories will help students know what they need to do to get to the next level.

“We’ll be able to tell them when they do a regular classroom assignment: this is proficient, this is developing. That’s going to lead to different types of resources that teachers give, the kind of feedback that they give. That’s not going to change curriculum, it’s going to change instruction,” explained Dr. Jones.

The school district said it expected lower scores since the test is more difficult than the ones it replaced. Students took the Georgia Milestones for the first time last spring.

View all of the results here.