Cobb’s back-to-school season includes learning how students performed on Georgia’s annual state assessment. As in the past, the Georgia Milestones results showed Cobb students continuing to outperform their state and metro peers.
The August Board of Education meeting broke down the Georgia Milestones successes and provided a snapshot of how individual Cobb schools are performing in comparison to their peers. 
For Developing Learners and above (Levels 2-4), Cobb students lead across the metro for American Literature, Biology, and US History. In some cases, Cobb students outpaced others by more than 24 percentage points.
More students are reading on grade level, which includes topping the leaderboard for grades 3, 5, 8, and American Literature. The same applies for ELA success across multiple grades, topping Cobb’s closest neighbor by as much as 13.3 percentage points and others by 19+.
“I appreciate the Board update; it’s clear Cobb students are benefiting from the high-quality education our families expect and our teachers deliver,” said Board Chair Randy Scamihorn.
The District’s Chief Strategy Officer, John Floresta, explained that the state’s data proves that Cobb’s students are doing better than their peers across the metro.
“The data speaks for itself, no matter how you slice it; Cobb is one of the highest performing districts in the state and the highest performing in metro Atlanta," he said.
Mr. Floresta then compared Cobb’s schools with schools in similar communities in Georgia. As the presentation to the Board showed, the success of Cobb students is not isolated to a district-wide average. When examining how specific Cobb schools compare to their metro peers, Cobb students still return higher scores.
For example, Walton High School students outperformed their metro peers as developing learners and above for American Literature, Biology, and US History, returning scores of less than two percentage points shy of perfect for two of the subjects.
When compared to similar schools in the metro, Osborne High School leads its peers in American Literature by up to 15.7 percentage points and more than 14 percentage points in US History and Biology.
Dodgen Middle School's closest metro peer is almost ten percentage points below for science. Dodgen tops the list for ELA and Science end-of-grade scores.
At least one similar metro school lagged behind Cooper Middle School students in science by more than 45 percentage points. Cooper’s metro peers did not catch up for Social Studies or ELA, which trailed by as much as 28.2 percentage points and 11.3 percentage points, respectively.
Both Garrison Mill Elementary School and Fair Oaks Elementary School also outperformed their metro school peers in ELA and Science.
Board Recognitions:
2023-2024 GADA Director’s Cup Champions – Walton High School Athletics
2023-2024 SkillsUSA State Leadership Conference State Gold Award Winners for Career Pathway Showcase Business Management and Technology – Misa McFarlin, Tanushri Dhamotharan, and Edore Oseragbaje, Wheeler High School
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Georgia Association of School Personnel Administrators (GASPA): Gold Award of Excellence Best in Class – Human Resources Division
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2024 GACTE State Winner, Carl Perkins Community Service Award – Dr. Tiffany Barney
40 Years of Service – Mary Kaltreider, East Side Elementary School
40 Years of Service – Claudette Petsch, Transportation
40 Years of Service – John Stafford, Events & Venue Management
High School Level Teacher of the Year – Jasmine Molina, Osborne High School
Middle School Level Teacher of the Year – Shelly Quance, Palmer Middle School
Elementary School Level and District Teacher of the Year– Karen Wright, Big Shanty Elementary School
