The latest results released by the Georgia Department of Education indicate strong academic progress made by Bulloch County Schools' students in the 2025–26 Georgia Milestones assessments.
According to a release from the school district, the assessments show that more of the district's students are mastering math, science and social studies content by scoring "Proficient" or "Distinguished," the highest of the Georgia Milestones' four achievement levels. Across all 15 schools, students improved in 33 of 45 end-of-grade and end-of-course assessments, 11 of those were double-digit gains of 10 percentage points or higher.
"There is much to be celebrated," said Dr. Torian White, who took over as schools' superintendent July 1. "Improved student performance doesn't happen by accident. I congratulate our teachers, instructional support staff and school administrators for their strategic collaboration that has led to our positive trend data over time. As a school system, we will continue to build on these strengths, target improvement areas and sustain strong positive relationships within each of our classrooms."
The results offer an early look at students' overall academic performance and growth. Georgia Milestones scores are the first in a series of accountability measures that the state will release in the coming weeks leading up to an overall annual report card for school systems – the College & Career Ready Performance Index.
Because the 2025–26 school year was the first administration of the Georgia Milestones' English Language Arts assessments aligned to the state's new K–12 English Language Arts Standards, the state is still calculating those scores.
"This data analysis as well as supplemental tools from the First District Regional Educational Service Agency, helps our leaders drill down, gain insight and find hidden wins that can be real momentum builders for our faculty and schools," said White, who is meeting individually with schools over the next few weeks to learn more about their school improvement work.
Highlights
➤ Math proficiency: Math proficiency has grown continuously for the past four years, rising 10.6 percentage points since the 2022–2023 school year. All but two schools increased proficiency in this area.
➤ Science proficiency: Science proficiency increased at 12 of 15 schools. Fifth-grade students scored particularly well with 47.8% of students scoring proficient or higher, up 8.0 percentage points over last year. Portal Elementary's students posted the highest growth with 65.7% scoring proficient or higher in science, an increase of 20.6 points. High school Biology scores saw a notable boost, with 43.9% of students reaching proficiency or higher, up 7.7 percentage points.
➤ Grades 3 through 8 success: 44.9% of students in grades 3 to 8 achieved Proficient or Distinguished status, a 4.4 percentage point increase from last year. Bulloch County students in these grades outperformed state averages in Math, Science, Social Studies, and Physical Science.
➤ High school progress: For End-Of-Course tests, 42.7% of students in grades 8 to 12 scored proficient or distinguished up 6.3 percentage points; however, students scored slightly lower than their peers statewide.
➤ Additional Targeted Support and Improvement Schools: While none of Bulloch County Schools' schools have been added to the state's lists for support and improvement since 2024, Stilson Elementary and Langston Chapel Elementary are in year three of their original three-year designation. They were placed on the list due to the lower achievement levels of their students with disabilities. The schools' scores this year indicate significant progress and improvement in that area.
▲ Stilson Elementary's students increased overall math proficiency from 45.9% to 56.5% and science proficiency increased from 40% to 59.5%, both of which exceeded the district's and state's scores. The school's students with disabilities sub-group increased their math proficiency by 11.5 percentage points over last year.
▲ Langston Chapel Elementary's students increased in overall math proficiency from 14.9% to 28.5 %. They also showed a 4.4 percentage point gain in science proficiency. All of the school's student groups increased proficiency significantly in math and science, especially students with disabilities. For that student sub-group, students scoring proficient or higher increased 18.5 percentage points in math and 7.5 points in science over last year.
➤ Closing gaps: Across the school district, the English language learners student group improved significantly, narrowing the math achievement gap by 10 percentage points.