Bibb County School District officials told the school board on Thursday that the district made progress toward closing achievement gaps with the state on the 2025 Georgia Milestones in most tested areas, but several board members asked for clearer gap reporting.

"In total, the Bibb County School District made progress toward closing the gap with state level achievement in 15 of the 20 tested areas," the presenter said during Part 4 of the milestone-results series, highlighting relative gains in third-, fifth-, sixth- and eighth-grade comparisons.

The presenter contrasted state and district year-over-year changes, noting an example in third-grade English language arts: the state fell from 38.4% to 34.9% proficient (a 3.5 percentage‑point drop) while Bibb County declined from 22.4% to 21.9% (a 0.5 percentage‑point drop). Because the district’s decline was smaller, staff characterized that as moving "3 percentage points closer to the state average."

Board members said that framing can obscure raw performance. "I think it would help me... to have a third column to show what the gap is," said Mister Morton, who urged that presentations explicitly list the numeric difference between district and state proficiency rates.

Superintendent Sims and the presentation team acknowledged the request and said future reports will include explicit gap figures. Staff also reminded the board that some lower-performing cohorts reflect national COVID-era disruptions to early schooling, and that literacy remains a district priority.

The milestone presentation is part of an ongoing series the district began in August and will return with additional subgroup and trend analysis.