By tristan

Mar 12, 2009 4:44 PM | Link to this

Yeah when i took this test and it was absolutly terrible. the questions didnt make sense and half of them werent even taught to us. my teacher told us about all the mistakes on it like a month after we took it because there wasnt a word about it.

By tristan

Mar 12, 2009 4:43 PM | Link to this

Yeah when i took this test and it was absolutly terrible. the questions didnt make sense and half of them werent even taught to us. my teacher told us about all the mistakes on it like a month after we took it because there wasnt a word about it.

By angry parent

Jun 26, 2008 11:11 AM | Link to this

The problem with most schools like Smitha is the PARENTS. Most of them are uneducated thugs themselves, who teach their kids to be just like them. What happened to family support? Stop blaming the teachers and start educating your children at home. No child can be successful without themselves, their teachers, and their PARENTS!!! Ignorance is bliss!!!

By administraor

Jun 17, 2008 10:33 AM | Link to this

About Smitha...a good strong administrator can clean up and disturb the "thug" culture and change it. Starting with the top ten list of non-negotiables eveloped by the school and parent leaders. The first being no one student has the right to take away others' education. If they do...they'll be in a different setting-pronto. I've been a principal in two major cities and watched the culture transform where achievement comes first. Also,you have to believe they can all achieve and build pride. All students can succeed even on the CRCT but it helps to know the rules of the "game" and the rules were not clearly explained to all the players.

By Concerned Parent

May 29, 2008 8:24 AM | Link to this

In reading these comments, I'm amazed at how many have the same concerns as me. There is not enough emphasis on basic skills in middle school, and there is not enough homework, most particulary in math (there is too much emphasis on math "journals"). How can you learn math without doing math homework (i.e., actual text book problem solving) nightly. Skills must be practiced in order to be mastered. Throughout middle school, my 2 children rarely had math homework. One child is now a 9th grader and I am even discouraged at the lack of math homework on that level. He should be doing 25 skill problems a night in order to actually learn and retain the lesson. I certainly remember doing such homework nightly. One must PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE in order to get better at skills. I was also surprised to read that someone else didn't have a math text book. I went through that same situation with my 6th grader last year. What a struggle that was, and with no text book, there was no way for me to get a handle on the goal of the lesson so that I could help him. When I raised the issue with the administration, I was told that that, due to the change in curriculum, the 6th grade didn't have math text books [last year] and that the teachers were having to search the web and pull material from websites in order to teach the lesson. What is wrong with that picture? Well, that particular child of mine struggled on many levels through half of 7th grade this year in the local public school. Seeing the writing on the wall, we pulled him out over the holiday break and enrolled him into a private school. It's amazing how much math and other homework he now has. And do you know what - he "gets" it now, and most importantly, with helpful and cooperative teachers and administration (MUCH more helpful than what we were encountering in the public system), he has gone through a whole attitude adjustment and is now enthusiastic about working hard and very proud of his grades. I'm not surprised by the CRCT results given my personal experience with the curriculum. I only hope it wakes people up that there is something drastically wrong with the system. That many students failing certainly takes the responsibility for failure off the students. WAKE UP! Get back to basic skills and teaching techniques and quit giving middle schoolers "life science" parenting projects with babydolls.

By High school teacher

May 28, 2008 4:10 PM | Link to this

I see that many parents are concerned about the disparity between the CRCT results and their child's grades. All too often teachers are told to give plenty of extra credit work to augment grades. I have seen many extra credit projects that have been completed by parents...so what has the child learned? But the child gets the credit to bring that B or C up. Another issue for grades is the fact that many schools do not allow teachers to assign zeros for work that is not done...or even an F for substandard work such as completing only a small percentage of assigned tasks. When mom does the project and junior doesn't do schoolwork or makeup work, then the grade is not a true reflection of the learning (OR LACK OF) taking place. Where do these "no zeros" and "mandatory" extra credit policies come from? Parent pressure on the administration and school systems. Many parents take a grade less than an A as a personal affront. They link their child's success with their own success.

As a veteran high school teacher, I am amazed with how often parents want to know what kind of extra credit their child can do to bring the grade up...not to passing, but to an A or from a low failing grade such as a 20% to a 70%...in the last week of school. This padding of grades is rampant from elementary school through high school. If the parents would demand "truth in grading" then they would have a more realistic idea of their child's progress. But are they honest enough with themselves to face the truth?

By Lisa

May 28, 2008 10:40 AM | Link to this

Who is teaching our 8th grade students the CRCT math in summer schools? The same teachers that were so effective during the year? My daughter struggled all year, I tried to help but there was no book for me to understand what they were learnig like my 3 other children. Something has got to give.

By 7th Grade Social Studies Teacher

May 27, 2008 6:37 PM | Link to this

For those of you who think the standards are "dumbed-down," I challenge you to take a long, hard look at them. Simply go to the Georgia Department of Education website and pull up 7th grade social studies standards. You will be amazed at what is there, and you will be the one who feels "dumb." I guarantee that most adults in the state of Georgia, including everybody at the state department, would have failed the 7th grade social studies test. The standards were impossible, and the test was even more so. Please don't make comments until you look at the standards. Become educated.

By Concerned parent and teacher

May 25, 2008 1:57 AM | Link to this

This fiasco is not the students or the parents fault! The State rolled out the Georgia Performance Standards and told teachers to teach it...and they did. The teachers assigned tasks and projects to help students meet these GPS standards. The students worked faithfully to complete these tasks. They did all they could. So place the blame where it is due. THE PROBLEM IS WITH THE TEST, NOT THE STUDENTS OR THE PARENTS. You cannot give teachers broad concepts to teach and then create a test that is very, very, specific. I doubt Ms. Cox herself could pass the 6th or 7th grade Social Studies test that was created! The test questions just did not line up to the curriculum the teachers were told to teach. (Too much pressure is placed on students to pass this test anyway) What if a child suffers from test anxiety?

By Fugetaboutit

May 25, 2008 1:43 AM | Link to this

The numbers (test scores and numbers who passed) does not make the difference. What does is are these students learning how to learn? Do they have the basic skills in place to pick up a piece of literature and decipher it as well as question it? Once that is in place I would hope that the focus is not on trivial pursuit type learning in which many facts are expected to be memorized.

While we can all agree that all of us should know certain information, if we learn information in a meaningful way, if it is critically analyzed or pondered, that type of learning takes us further.

I would be very interested in reading the questions. Developing good questions is an art and few are good at this.

Good questions reinforce what is learned not make it more ambivalent.

Good questions also allow for varying points of view since all of us bring different experiences to the table.

Basically, if we teach our students the skills they need to actively pursue information and be able to apply it consistently, we have done well by them.

What I find is that too often there are bits of information that take away from what we are supposed to learn. For example, Paul Revere shouting that the British were coming. Yes, he did that, but what is more important is that we know what type of government our forefathers were trying to get away from, how it figures into the change of government, why this was significant, how does it apply today, does it make the student aware that all of us play an active role in the metamorphosis of government, etc...?


Too often, the way students are taught is through a sound byte. I say let's teach students to critically analyze what is thrown at them. When students learn this way, they seek information, they try to put all the pieces (including the trivia) together and can remember it better.

Too, what do we really want everyone to know and understand? Let's decide.

Maybe we need to establish more homogeneous guidelines for why parts of history were distinct from one another. From there, we can fill in the specifics that I tend to refer to as "trivia" or facts that by themselves mean little. Knowing a date is not as important as understanding why something happened was significant. While it is good to have some idea of the chronological order in which history evolved, it is much more important to understand the importance of its impact.

So back to this so called test debacle. We need good tests and a good idea of what we want to teach and why.