About the CRCT
The Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) is given every year in reading, English/language arts and math in first through eighth grades. Students in grades 3-8 are also tested in science and social studies. A 2001 state law requires third-graders to pass reading and eighth-graders to pass reading and math to be promoted to the next grade. Due to budget cuts the CRCT wasn't given in first and second grade during the 2013-14 school year. Next year, the CRCT will be replaced by a new, more challenging test called the Georgia Milestones Assessment System.
Check the scores
Find out what percentages of students in metro Atlanta met, exceeded or did not meet state standards in reading and math on their final CRCT exam.We’ll also post school by school results when the state releases those in coming weeks.
Georgia’s longtime standardized test was at the center of some cheating fireworks during its 14 years, but it’s going out with a quiet sigh.
Student performance on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test, which will be replaced this upcoming school year with a new, tougher test, wasn’t that much different in 2014 than it was the year before, according to district-level results the state Department of Education released Wednesday.
With a few exceptions, the percentage of metro Atlanta test-takers who met or exceeded the state’s standard in reading, English/language arts, math, science and social studies didn’t change much.
CRCT PERFORMANCE CHARTS: DISTRICT-BY-DISTRICT
» 3rd GRADE: APS | Clayton | Cobb | DeKalb | Fulton | Gwinnett
» 5th GRADE: APS | Clayton | Cobb | DeKalb | Fulton | Gwinnett
» 8th GRADE: APS | Clayton | Cobb | DeKalb | Fulton | Gwinnett
The percentage of eighth-graders who exceeded the state standard in each of the tested areas did rise, with reading seeing an 8 percentage point bump.
“Reading is truly foundational to learning, so those increases in students exceeding standards are encouraging to see,” Georgia School Superintendent John Barge said. “As we transition to tests that more accurately reflect our standards – and the emphasis those standards place on critical thinking and comprehension – students’ reading abilities will help them excel.”
The CRCT’s replacement, called Georgia Milestones, will include more open-ended questions that will require more writing. Meeting the state’s standard will also be tougher on Georgia Milestones; at the urging of the U.S. Department of Education, Georgia and other states across the country are raising the thresholds students must clear to meet the state’s standard of content comprehension.
The CRCT was administered to students in grades three through eight. Third-graders had to meet the state standard in reading to be promoted to the fourth grade, and fifth- and eighth-graders had to meet the standard in reading and math to be promoted.
For teachers and administrators, CRCT results were seen as broad indicators of success or failure. Some educators have pointed to the test’s importance as one of the reasons for the cheating on it that occurred in Atlanta Public Schools.
This year, as in years past, test-takers had much more success meeting or exceeding the state’s standard in reading and English/language arts than they did in math or science.
The percentage of test-takers who met or exceeded the state’s standard in reading and English/language arts ranged from the upper 70s to the upper 90s in the major metro Atlanta districts of Cobb, DeKalb, APS, Fulton and Gwinnett. The percentage of test-takers who met or exceeded the state’s standard in math and science range from the upper 50s to the low 90s.
In both the Cobb and Gwinnett County school districts, more than 90 percent of third- through eighth-graders met or exceeded the state standard in reading and English/language arts. Fulton barely missed being able to make the same claim, as the percentage of its fourth-grade test-takers who met or exceeded the standard in English/language arts was 89.9.
APS, DeKalb and Clayton had some problems areas on the CRCT.
Only 58.9 percent of sixth-graders in APS met or exceeded the state standard in science. Only 62.6 percent of third-graders did.
In DeKalb, 58 percent of sixth-graders met or exceeded the state standard in science. The district’s eighth-graders struggled in math, with 65 percent meeting or exceeding the state standard.
And in Clayton, the percentage of fifth-graders who met or exceeded the state’s standard in math fell by 9.2 percentage points from last year. The percentage of eighth-graders who met or exceeded the state standard in math fell by 5.8 percentage points.
To help improve performance for the coming school year, Clayton district officials gave students in various math-related subjects instructional packets including videos that teach how to solve math problems.
Despite the trouble areas, districts touted progress on the CRCT, even if that progress was largely incremental.
DeKalb was happy to see improvement in most subject areas.
“We are proud of the students, parents, and educators who contributed to the district’s academic growth and achievement,” DeKalb Superintendent Michael Thurmond said. “We also recognize that more work is left to be done.”
While APS’ performance on the CRCT has lagged behind other districts, over the past four years the district has seen increases in the percentages of students meeting or exceeding the state standard in reading and math.
“We’re seeing some improvement over one year,” APS Testing and Assessment Director Joe Blessing said. “We’re pleased with our improvement over three years. But Atlanta Public Schools definitely has a long way to go.”
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