Curriculum, Georgia

Writing on the Wall: Preparing Georgia Students for Milestones Writing Assessment

What does it take to prepare Georgia students for the new Milestones writing component? According to our experts, the answer lies in understanding the new rubrics and building a consistent, yearlong writing rhythm.

On September 24th, 2026, Progress Learning hosted Writing on the Wall: Preparing Georgia Students for Milestones Writing Assessment, a deeply informative webinar led by Kim Reiter, Shelly Stewart, and Dr. Sandra Markowitz. In this session, our team delivered a compelling roadmap for any Georgia educator seeking to navigate the new ELA standards and prepare students for test day.

WHY THE NEW STANDARDS REQUIRE A SHIFT

The first year of Georgia’s new ELA standards was all about implementation. Moving forward, the focus shifts to consistency. Across the board, the biggest shift the webinar highlighted is that reading and writing are no longer treated as separate skills—they are completely integrated.

“Gone are the days where reading is one thing and writing is separate,” Senior Academics Manager Kim Reiter explained during the session.

THE TWO WRITING TASK TYPES

The writing component now looks different depending on the grade level, splitting into two distinct task types:

  • Extended Writing Tasks (“I Write”): For grades 3, 5, 8, and Literature and Composition II, students are given three to five multimodal sources. They must read closely, pull relevant evidence, and develop a first draft response based entirely on the provided evidence.
  • Peer Revision Tasks (“I Revise”): For grades 4, 6, and 7, students analyze a draft written by another student. They are applying writing standards in context—evaluating whether the writing clearly addresses its purpose and audience, and if a section could be revised to be more engaging.

THE DEMANDS OF THE EXTENDED WRITING TASK

For the grades tackling extended writing, the task is rigorous. Students have to manage multiple cognitive steps within a single testing window.

Reiter summarized the complexity perfectly: “Students have to understand the text, interpret the text, respond to the purpose, understand the purpose, understand the audience, and use the evidence, elaborate their thinking, and control their written language all within one task.”

To evaluate this work, the Georgia writing rubrics focus on three distinct traits:

  • Purpose and Organization (Up to 3 points): Measures how effectively the student establishes a purpose and organizes ideas.
  • Evidence and Elaboration (Up to 3 points): Evaluates how well the student selects and elaborates on relevant evidence.
  • Language Usage and Conventions (Up to 2 points): Evaluates sentence construction, word choice, and mechanics.

As Senior Academics Manager Shelly Stewart noted while breaking down the traits: “The goal ultimately is to help students develop the skills that the rubric is actually measuring.”

BUILDING A YEARLONG WRITING RHYTHM

Waiting until spring to prepare students is a tough strategy. If you are looking for a way to bring consistent practice to your campus, Progress Learning offers standards-aligned practice assessments that mirror the actual Georgia Milestones experience.

“By the time the milestones come around, it’s nothing new. They’ve done it already, and it’s just another testing day,” Reiter noted about the value of yearlong practice.

We embedded the Georgia writing rubrics directly into our platform, giving you three flexible scoring options:

  • Hand scoring: Professional Progress Learning raters review and score student work within six business days.
  • User scoring: District staff can score responses locally using built-in rubric support.
  • AI-Assisted scoring: Teacher-Led. AI-Assisted. Efficiently score large numbers of responses based strictly on the Georgia rubrics. Educators stay in full control to review or change scores, and nothing created with this feature is used to train any AI model.

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

The Writing on the Wall session was a great reminder that test prep isn’t just about format familiarity. It is about repeated practice with the skills Georgia is actually measuring. By assigning standards-aligned practice early in the year, you can respond with targeted remediation and repeat the cycle so growth is visible over time.

Want to see these strategies in action?

Watch the full Writing on the Wall: Preparing Georgia Students for Milestones Writing Assessment webinar and gain even more practical insights you can bring into your classroom right away.



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