The region against the state

Source: Georgia Milestones district aggregates published by the Governor's Office of Student Achievement, All Students, all grades. The count includes state charter and state school systems, which is why it exceeds Georgia's 180 traditional districts. “All subjects” weights each subject by students tested. Similar-size bands use the number of students tested rather than enrollment — it is published for every district and is the population the scores actually describe. Demographic peers are the twenty districts whose tested populations look most like the system's own, matched on shares of race/ethnicity, economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities, and English learner students in EOG Mathematics. The poverty comparison uses the share of enrolled students identified as economically disadvantaged in GOSA's Enrollment by Subgroup Metrics file, fitted against proficiency by least squares across all districts testing at least 200 students; a system is only described as above or below that trend when it sits more than one residual standard deviation from it. GOSA publishes enrollment on the same February cycle as the Milestones file, so the most recent school year is placed by the latest published poverty rates until its own are released — scores are always the selected year’s, and the panel says which year the rates come from. Georgia identifies economically disadvantaged students by direct certification, and districts operating the Community Eligibility Provision report every student as eligible — so the measure compresses at the top and describes the trend, not any individual cause. Compare the region's systems with each other.