CRCT standardized test scores will be released today, but they won't bring with them the headiness or headaches they've brought in the past.
That's because the test, formally known as the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test, is being deemphasized as Georgia moves away from federal No Child Left Behind accountability measures to a new accountability system of its own design.
Few educators are mourning the waning primacy of the CRCT, administered to public school students in grades 3 through 8. The test, a key part in determining if a school meets federal achievement standards , measures student performance in English/language arts, reading, science, math and social studies.
"I think educators have felt for some time now that we've gone overboard on testing," said Tim Callahan, spokesman for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators. "Right now, we seem to be caught up in a numbers game. It's almost a blame and shame game."
Since 2000, the CRCT has been a critical factor in determining if a school meets federal adequate yearly progress targets, or AYP. In years past, those high stakes would create nervousness among some schools when test scores were reported. Persistently poor performing schools could be closed or taken over by the state. Educator bonuses were sometimes tied to whether a school made AYP, and teaching classes that consistently performed poorly on the CRCT could negatively affect that teacher's career.
The drive to do well on CRCT and meet federal standards was blamed for spurring educators in Dougherty County and Atlanta Public Schools to change student answers on the CRCT. APS is now trying to fire about 50 educators who are on paid administrative leave after being accused of cheating or failing to report cheating on the 2009 CRCT.
The CRCT will be around for another year, perhaps longer. Georgia parents began receiving their student's test scores in late May. Today's release of CRCT district scores will be followed by a school-by-school report.
But instead of relying almost exclusively on the CRCT to determine how schools are performing, Georgia is working to create an index system that will assign each school a numerical rating from one to 100, with 100 being the highest possible rating.
In that rating system, which Georgia got the right to establish because it received a waiver from NCLB, CRCT results will be one of several factors that make up a school's rating. Some other factors will include graduation rates, Advanced Placement test scores, reading levels and career awareness indicators.
The Georgia Department of Education expects to implement that new measurement system late this year or early next year.
In addition to implementing a new accountability system, Georgia has joined 46 other states in embracing a new common core of academic expectations. Student success in meeting those expectations will be measured by a new, national assessment that will be ready in 2014 or 2015.
The CRCT will carry some weight until then.
"It will have equal importance until we have the national assessment," said Matt Cardoza, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Education.
CRCT results were a factor in the "focus," "alert" and "priority" school designations the Georgia Department of Education has already made. Those designations bring with them specific types of district- and state-level assistance.
This fall, the state will release a list of high-performing, "reward," schools -- and, again, CRCT results will be used in making those designations.
But as a high-stakes, pressure-packed test, the CRCT appears to be on its way out.
"What has happened in the era of No Child Left Behind and CRCT is that we've gotten so test-centric that we've taken the joy out of teaching and learning," Callahan said. "We've got to start asking, ‘Are we focusing on the right things, the important things?'"
CRCT FADING AWAY
A pair of factors are combining to diminish the importance of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test, which has been administered to elementary and middle school students in Georgia since 2000.
- Georgia was successful in its application to opt out of the federal No Child Left Behind accountability system. The state agreed to implement its own accountability system, which will rely less on the CRCT and more on such things as graduation rates, Advanced Placement test scores, career awareness indicators and reading levels.
- Georgia agreed to join 46 other states in adopting a "common core" of academic expectations. That common core will change what is taught in Georgia public schools, and it will change when academic topics are first introduced. A new, national assessment of whether students are meeting those expectations is expected to be ready by 2014 or 2015.
Source: Georgia Department of Education
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