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(See the
chart accompanying this story for a history and
comparison of Coweta County’s overall 1st through 8th grade CRCT
scores, from 2004-2008).
Results by county of the state’s Criterion Reference Competency
Test for grades 1 through 8 were released Monday. The results
showed that Coweta County Schools, overall, improved student
performance in most grades and subjects in the last year, and
outperformed students throughout the state with higher passage
rates and test scores in nearly all grades and subject areas.
The Criterion Reference Competency Test (CRCT) is given to
Georgia students in the spring of each school year. The exams
test student’s mastery of the state of Georgia’s basic
curriculum in the areas of reading, language arts and math in
grade 1 through 8, and science and social studies in grades 3
through 8. In all, the CRCT covers 36 grades and subject areas.
Overall 2008 scores released by the Georgia Department of
Education show the Coweta County School System with higher
passage rates in 30 out of those 36 areas, scoring the same in
one area, and scoring lower than the state in three areas. Two
areas (6th and 7th grade social studies) were not included in
the results.
The Coweta County School System also improved its own passage
rates and average scores in 23 of the 36 areas tested, stayed
the same in two areas, and dropped in nine areas.
Since 2003, the state of Georgia and local school systems have
been implementing the new Georgia Performance Standards
curriculum in reading, English/language arts, math, science and
social studies in all grades. The new standards are intended to
provide students with a more rigorous curriculum.
As the curriculum is implemented, the state uses a new and more
difficult CRCT to test student mastery of the new curriculum.
Eight grades and subjects were tested by a new GPS version of
the CRCT in 2008, including 3rd, 4th, 5th and 8th grade math;
6th, 7th and 8th grade social studies; and 8th grade science.
In Coweta County, six of the nine areas that saw a decline in
passage rates were grades and subjects which had a new CRCT test
based on the Georgia Performance Standards for the first time in
2008. Those areas included 3rd, 4th, 5th and 8th grade math, 8th
grade social studies and 8th grade science.
6th and 7th grade social studies CRCT exam results were
invalidated this year by the state.
“I’m proud of the scores that are in areas that reflect
continued gains in areas that previously transitioned to GPS”
said Connie Davis, Coweta County School System’s Testing and
School Improvement Director. “Our students and teachers are
doing well, compared to students and teachers state-wide. More
important, we are seeing high passage rates in most subjects,
and we are continuing to see passage rates and overall scores
rise in a majority of grades and subjects.”
Coweta County Schools’ largest drop in passage rates came in the
six grades and subject areas that saw the new GPS curriculum and
new test for that curriculum fully implemented this year, said
Davis.
This year, those drops particularly affected students and
parents in 5th and 8th grade math because CRCT math scores are
also used as criteria for promotion to the next grade. The lower
passage rates meant that a larger number of students attended
elementary and middle school CRCT test prep summer classes and
retook the exams on June 20th. Reading scores are used as
promotion criteria in grades 3, 5 and 8. Reading passage rates
in those three grades improved slightly in 2008.
While the drop in math passage rates is frustrating for students
and parents, and a cause for concern, this year’s drop also has
to be kept in perspective, said Davis.
“First of all, we have experienced this before in the last few
years as the new curriculum and new tests have been introduced,”
she said. “With most GPS implementations and new tests there has
been a dip in the scores and passage rates, then we also saw a
rebound in performance once the areas of weakness were
addressed.”
Passage rates in 1st and 2nd grade math saw a significant
increase (6 percentage points each) in 2008, after significant
drops in 2007 when the GPS math curriculum was fully implemented
and tested in those grades. 89% of Coweta students in those
grades passed the state standards test in math in 2008, which
brings both grades nearly back up to the 90% and 91% passage
rates of 2006.
Coweta County passage rates on the science CRCT exam improved in
grades 1 through 7, after dropping in previous years when the
new GPS-standards and testing were implemented. Some of the
increases in Coweta’s CRCT science passage rates were
significant, including rises of 5% in 4th grade science, 4% in
5th grade science and 8% in 6th grade science.
“Second, what has happened in Coweta County hasn’t been unique
to us,” said Davis. “While we have the responsibility of making
sure we address the curriculum issues and bring scores back up,
the drops we saw this year happened all over the state, to the
same or greater extents, in the same six subject and grade
areas.”
Coweta County’s drop on passage rates for 8th grade math, for
example, was 18 points – exactly the same as the statistical
drop in passage rates state-wide. Significant drops in Coweta’s
passage rates in 3rd, 5th and 8th grade math and 8th grade
social studies mirrored similar state-wide decline in passage
rates.
In 8th grade math, as in the other six areas, Coweta County’s
drop was statistically similar to lower passage rates
state-wide, but left Coweta County students overall passing at
higher rates than students statewide.
Coweta’s overall passage rate was 5% higher than the state’s
passage rate (68% compared to 63%). Coweta’s 8th grade CRCT
science and social studies passage rates were 12% and 11% higher
than the state passage rate.
“Our teachers did a good job this year with a difficult
situation, just as they have in previous years with
implementation of a new, harder curriculum,” said Superintendent
Blake Bass.
“We need to remember that the new curriculum being implemented
by the state of Georgia is a significant change from the old
Quality Core Curriculum. It is moving us toward a
standards-based curriculum based more on critical thinking
skills,” said Bass. “It isn’t an easy transition. But based on a
longitudinal analysis, the scores that dropped this year will go
up, as they have in past years. Because of the rigor of this
curriculum, the end result will be that our students will be
better- prepared and well-rounded.”
Bass noted that as Coweta teachers and students have made the
transition over the last four years to a school curriculum that
is almost entirely based on the Georgia Performance standards,
Coweta is performing at rates that are consistently higher than
the state.
“Our teachers are responsible for the high scores that we have
overall, for raising student performance after each curriculum
implementation in recent years, and for the consistent, overall
improvement in our testing scores that we have seen for years,”
he said. “They will do just as well in addressing the concerns
in these specific grades and areas.”
“Our teachers and administrators already have begun to address
how they are going to rebound to our performance levels in those
six areas, and give schools and students the support they need
to master the standards,” said Davis. “They know what students
and teachers need, every school will address those needs in
their school improvement plan, and each school and the system
will be focusing on it.”
“That’s the way we operate, by focusing on individual students
and what their needs are,” said Davis. “We can’t wait for the
state to fix it. We will take responsibility for our children
and what goes on in our schools. We will give students what they
need to be successful.”
School-by-school scores on the CRCT are available at the state
Department of Education’s website at
www.gadoe.org. Individual student’s CRCT results are
available at each child’s school if they have not already
received them. During summer months, parents should call ahead
if they wish to pick them up, or they can pick them up when the
new school year begins on August 6. |
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