Getting More Out of DRC BEACON® in Georgia: Reading Predictions and Using the Weeks Between Windows

Georgia educators use DRC BEACON® to monitor student progress in English language arts and math throughout the school year. The free, adaptive interim assessments can give teachers and districts insight into how students in grades 3–8 are performing against Georgia’s academic standards.

For the 2026–27 school year, BEACON®’s Milestones projections are available for math, but not yet for ELA. The state is still completing the first ELA assessment built on its new standards, which is delaying the availability of those projections. This transition makes it especially important for educators to have additional ways to assess ELA skills, monitor progress, and address gaps.

How DRC BEACON® Is Used in Georgia

BEACON® runs on DRC INSIGHT®, the same platform used for Milestones. This gives students an opportunity to become familiar with the testing interface and technology-enhanced questions before the end-of-year assessment. Each district sets its own BEACON® testing schedule, as there is no statewide testing window. GaDOE also offers BEACON® Early Years, a separate K–3 reading and dyslexia screener that is distinct from the grades 3–8 interim assessment. 

How Often DRC BEACON® Returns Data

Georgia recommends three BEACON® administrations throughout the school year: fall, winter, and spring. These assessments give educators periodic opportunities to measure student progress and adjust instruction before the Milestones in April. 

Here’s an example of how districts schedule their grades 3–5 testing. For a more precise testing schedule, take a look at how Cobb County laid out their elementary testing schedule.

1. BEACON® fall: Mid-to-late August
2. BEACON® winter: Early December, about 14 weeks later
3. BEACON® spring: Early March, about 12 weeks later
4. Milestones EOG window opens: Mid-April, about 5 weeks later

Every gap between administrations is a blind spot. Weeks can pass between BEACON® administrations, leaving teachers with limited assessment data to evaluate student progress in the meantime. If a student struggles with a particular concept in the fall, for example, teachers need ways to address that gap and monitor improvement before the winter assessment.

Domain testlets are short, focused, computer-adaptive assessments that allow teachers to evaluate performance in a specific subject area between full assessments. However, they measure student understanding and don’t provide opportunities for more practice. Between windows, the evidence has to come from classroom assessment and practice data.

What DRC BEACON® Reports Tell You and What They Don’t

What the reports show

The Individual Student Report includes:

• Scale score, with a confidence band
• Performance level (Support Needed, Near Target, or Prepared) against Georgia’s end-of-year expectations
• Reporting category performance, with the date tested
• Growth between two administrations, rated High, Moderate, or Low
• Predicted likelihood of each Milestones achievement level, starting in fall

Supporting ELA instruction during the standards transition

Georgia’s transition to its new K–12 ELA standards presents an additional challenge for educators interpreting assessment data. The 2025–26 Milestones administration was the first to assess students against the new standards, and the state is completing additional test development and standard-setting activities before releasing ELA achievement projections through BEACON®. 

As a result, educators have fewer opportunities to use historical proficiency data to understand how students are performing against the new expectations. They need additional ways to assess mastery of individual standards, identify learning gaps, and give students practice with the types of questions they’ll see on the Milestones. 

A third-party assessment aligned with Georgia’s updated standards can help fill that gap. Progress Learning offers updated ELA assessment items, including interactive technology-enhanced questions and multimodal source materials. Its writing assessments also give students opportunities to practice constructed responses, with in-house scoring available to help educators evaluate their work. 

What educators need beyond interim assessment results

BEACON® provides valuable information about student performance, but teachers need additional instructional data to translate those results into action. 

1. Which standard is this student missing? A full test spreads 32-52 items across several reporting categories, so category results rest on a small sample of items. Teachers need more detailed assessment data to identify the standards students haven’t mastered.
2. Where does a student stand against Georgia’s new ELA standards? With ELA projections temporarily unavailable, additional standards-aligned assessments with new Section I Interpreting and Constructing Texts (ICT) items can help educators evaluate student understanding.
3. Did the intervention work? Teachers need opportunities to reassess students after targeted intervention rather than waiting for the next interim testing window.
4. Did students get enough practice? BEACON® is sized to measure, about three times a year. Students need more opportunities to apply what they’ve learned, and educators need more data.
5. What about other Milestones subjects? BEACON® covers ELA and math. Milestones also tests science in grades 5 and 8, social studies in grade 8, and end-of-course exams. In ELA, students in grades 3 and 5 write an essay drawing on two or three sources, while BEACON®’s documented item types are selected response, technology enhanced, and short answer. Students need instruction and practice across all tested subjects, including opportunities to develop the writing skills required on ELA assessments.

Addressing Gaps Between DRC BEACON® Windows

DRC BEACON® shows where students are trending. Progress Learning supports the work in the weeks after results come in with standards-aligned assessments, targeted instruction, and ongoing practice. Georgia districts can use Progress Learning alongside BEACON® or as an alternative benchmark assessment system.

• Assess against Milestones standards. Progress Learning’s student performance assessments mirror the structure and blueprints of Georgia Milestones. Three benchmark assessments per tested grade and subject provide opportunities to measure student readiness in ELA, math, science, and social studies. In ELA, the benchmarks also include writing tasks aligned with Milestones, so educators can have another way to evaluate student performance while BEACON®’s ELA projections are unavailable.
• Find the specific standard. Unit pre- and post-tests follow GaDOE curriculum maps with 3-5 items per standard, so a weak BEACON® reporting category becomes a short list of standards to reteach.
• Assign targeted work. Teachers can assign practice and video lessons based on student performance. Writing assessments aligned to the ICT standards can be teacher-scored or AI-assisted.
• Let scoring and follow-up run automatically. Assessments are automatically scored, completion is tracked, and Quick Click Remediation sends follow-up practice straight from assessment results.
• Go deeper where needed. Liftoff provides adaptive Tier 2 and Tier 3 intervention for grades 2–8, with reporting from the individual student to the district level.

This is all particularly useful for students in the straddle group. Pre-built, auto-scored assignments let schools act without teachers building practice from scratch, and central offices can see the plan running well before the spring assessment window. 

Progress Learning holds ESSA Tier 2 Moderate Evidence from independent studies.

How DRC BEACON®, Milestones, and Progress Learning Fit Together

BEACON® shows you where students are trending, and Milestones tells you once a year whether they reached grade level. Progress Learning fills the weeks between.

• Standards, not just categories. For every student near a cut, you see which Georgia standards they’re missing.
• Practice you can see. Auto-scored work and completion data show whether students did the practice, not only whether they grew.
• All four tested subjects. Benchmarks and practice extend to science and social studies, which sit outside BEACON®’s scope.
• Checkpoints between windows. Unit pre- and post-tests built on GaDOE curriculum maps show whether students mastered each unit’s standards, so you aren’t waiting months for the next BEACON® window to find out.

Want to see how Progress Learning builds on your DRC BEACON® results? Book a demo below, and we’ll walk through it with Georgia’s standards and your data.

DRC BEACON® is a registered trademark of Data Recognition Corporation.