The Georgia Department of Education has implemented a new way to measure student progress, and Liberty County students are faring well.

Student Growth Percentiles — determined by the Georgia Student Growth Model — “describe how much academic progress a student has made relative to other students across Georgia with a similar achievement history,” according to a video on the Georgia DoE’s website.

Unlike standardized-test scores, which provide snapshots of how students are doing at a particular point in time, the SGP measures how much progress students have made from the end of one academic year to the next.

The model works by grouping students from across the state with similar standardized-test scores for comparison. For example, students with an SGP of 65 showed more academic growth than 65 percent of their peers.

Students who score high on standardized tests may show low growth percentiles, just as low-scoring students may show higher growth.

The high-scoring students with lower growth would need to be challenged more to keep up with their peers.

According to a Liberty County School System press release, LCSS fifth-graders met or exceeded state averages 43 percent of the time, and seventh-grade students met or exceeded the state 67 percent of the time.

At the high-school level, LCSS students beat state averages in 15 of 18 categories.

More information on the Georgia Student Growth Model can be found at www.gsgm.gadoe.org.