A new round of standardized tests scores recently were released for school districts around Georgia, and the some of the math scores for the Baldwin County School District were dismal.
There’s no way of sugarcoating it.
At the eighth grade level, 17 percent of the BCSD students tested were “proficient or above,” essentially meaning that the other 83 percent of students were “below grade level.” As another way of putting it, out of the 180 Georgia city and county districts in the data, the BCSD ranked 168th, which equates the sixth percentile. Even more glaring, out of the 71 Peach State school districts with at least 4,000 students, the BCSD ranked 70th.
The Baldwin Bulletin reached out to Kristina Brooks, who’s entering her second year as superintendent. Brooks also didn’t sugarcoat it.
“Having (17.3 percent) of our 8th graders reach full proficiency is simply unacceptable,” she said.
Brooks added that the district already was in the process of changing its approach to math instruction. First and foremost, the BCSD has cut back on its “heavy reliance on instructional software and technology.”
“We are putting teacher- led, direct instruction back at the center of every classroom,” Brooks said.
The BCSD also is scaling back on “social promotions.”
“For the 2026–2027 school year, we identified 30 eighth graders who have lacked academic progress since sixth grade. Instead of socially promoting these students to high school unprepared, we placed them in a focused, targeted program at Baldwin Success Academy to master essential skills,” Brooks said. “Holding students accountable will become standard practice across our district.”
There are also some new faces in new places at Oak Hill Middle this year.
“We expanded our instructional coaching model by promoting Ms. Tiandra Canty to Assistant Principal and Ms. Shekita Shinholster to Math/Science Instructional Coach to lead this work from the perspective of highly successful classroom teachers,” Brooks said. “Their ability to support the instructional focus that Principal Broxton expects will strengthen the skills of teachers new to OHMS.”
The recently-released math scores were part of the Georgia Milestones Assessment System Test, which has been the state of Georgia’s standardized test of choice since the 2014-2015 school year. The round of scores released late last week reflects the “end of grade” tests for the 2025-2026 school year. Third graders through eighth graders were tested. Here’s a snapshot of the other five grade levels in the BCSD in the subject of math:
• Third grade – 28.3 percent of students were “proficient or above,” which ranked 160th out of the 180 school districts in the data (the 11th percentile)
• Fourth grade – 31.3 percent of students were “proficient or above,” which ranked 148th out of the 180 school districts in the data (the 18th percentile)
• Fifth grade – 26.5 percent of students were “proficient or above,” which ranked 143rd out of the 180 school districts in the data (the 21st percentile)
• Sixth grade – 28.3 percent of students were “proficient or above,” which ranked 123rd out of the 180 school districts in the data (the 32nd percentile)
• Seventh grade – 25.2 percent of students were “proficient or above,” which ranked 145th out of the 180 school districts in the data (the 19th percentile) Also released last week were the Georgia Milestones science and social studies scores. Meanwhile, the scores for reading and English/ language arts are expected to be released in November or December.
In terms of “it could always be worse,” only 5.5 percent of Hancock County eighth graders were “proficient or above” in the recent round of math scores, which ranked dead last in the state. In other words, 19-out-of-every-20 eighth graders in Hancock County were below grade level.