Georgia students in every grade performed better this year when their math skills were put to the test on the CRCT, results released Thursday show.
Math scores improved most in the fifth and eighth grades, two of the three grades where passing the CRCT in math is required for automatic promotion to the next grade.
Among fifth graders taking the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests this year, 87 percent passed the math test, up from 82 percent last year. Eighth graders posted a four-point gain, with 78 percent passing.
Statewide, 758,512 students in third through eighth grades took the CRCT, which checks students' knowledge against school curriculum in the subjects of reading, English/language arts and mathematics. Third- through eighth-graders are also tested in science and social studies. It was the third straight year that most results in all subjects were up at least slightly.
First and second graders did not take the test this year due to state budget cuts.
The tests -- which are used as a benchmark of school performance -- were given in April and May, and, for the second straight year, state monitors were assigned to observe test-taking in schools where the number of wrong-to-right erasures on 2010 exams raised suspicions. Teachers in schools of concern weren't allowed to give the tests to their own students, and 78 Georgia teachers and administrators who caught the state's attention after a statistical analysis weren't allowed to give the test at all.
About 200 schools came under suspicion for cheating in 2009 on the CRCT. Security was tightened in 2010, and fewer classrooms were flagged for concern on a follow-up analysis released this year.
Collectively, Georgia students were given 30 tests and showed improvement on 23 of them, a trend that mirrors results of the last two years. Students showed the most improvement on the sixth grade social studies test, with 72 percent passing this year, compared to 64 percent last year.
The subject where students improved, but still struggled the most: eighth grade science. Sixty-seven percent of students taking the eighth grade science test failed, even though the passing rate climbed two percentage points.
The statewide results also show long-term improvement in the narrowing of the achievement gap between white and minority students. District level are due out later this month, followed by school-by-school results.
State School Superintendent John Barge said the new CRCT results show "many more of our students mastering a more rigorous curriculum.
"The credit for these tremendous results goes back to the local level, where they have raised the bar for all students," he said.
Steve Dolinger, president of the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education and a former Fulton County school superintendent, said schools across the state deserve credit for continuing "the hard work and heavy lifting.
"For our work force of the future, our business community has to be very excited that we're closing the achievement gap between our white and minority students," Dolinger said.
Since 2006, the achievement gap between white and Hispanic students has narrowed from 17 points to 4 points on the fifth grade English/Language Arts test. The gap between black and white students on the same test dropped from 12 points to 7, the data shows.
Parent Kia Smith said she is glad to see positive gains.
"I hope it's all honest and fair scoring," she said. Smith said she's concerned about the social studies instruction across all grade levels.
"It has repeatedly been my son's lowest score, and he always says: ‘We don't spend as much time on it as other subjects'."
State officials had predicted that all CRCT scores would increase gradually as students became more familiar with a more rigorous curriculum that's been in place for eighth graders since 2008, for sixth since 2006.
State law requires that students in third, fifth and eighth grade meet or exceed expectations on the CRCT in reading in order to be promoted. Fifth and eighth grade students must also meet or exceed expectations on the CRCT in mathematics.
Ben Wagner, who will be a ninth grader at Chamblee High School next year, said he thought the eighth grade CRCT was pretty easy, though a few test questions were poorly written or confusing.
His former school, Chamblee Middle, made a big deal of the test, starting a countdown 60 days before it and giving out daily test-taking tips as part of the announcements.
Brittany Wilson and brother Trey, students at Gwinnett County's McConnell Middle School in Grayson, said they passed all portions of the test.
Brittany said her seventh grade class started preparing at the beginning of the school year. Trey said the intense studying started for him a few weeks before the test.
""We had a lot of study guides," Brittany said. "It was average. It wasn't too easy or too hard."
CRCT results for the critical grades:
*Students must pass these tests to automatically be promoted.
*Grade 3 reading
2011 meets or exceeds -- 91 percent
2010 meets or exceeds – 90 percent
Difference + 1
Grade 3 English/Language Arts
2011 meets or exceeds – 89 percent
2010 meets or exceeds – 88 percent
Difference +1
Grade 3 Mathematics
2011 meets or exceeds – 81 percent
2010 meets or exceeds – 79 percent
Difference +2
Grade 3 Science
2011 meets or exceeds – 81 percent
2010 meets or exceeds – 80 percent
Difference +1
Grade 3 Social Studies
2011 meets or exceeds – 81 percent
2010 meets or exceeds – 79 percent
Difference +2
*Grade 5 Reading
2011 meets or exceeds – 91 percent
2010 meets or exceeds – 90 percent
Difference +1
Grade 5 English/Language Arts
2011 meets or exceeds – 93 percent
2011 meets or exceeds – 92 percent
Difference +1
*Grade 5 Mathematics
2011 meets or exceeds – 87 percent
2010 meets or exceeds – 82 percent
Difference +5
Grade 5 Science
2011 meets or exceeds – 77 percent
2010 meets or exceeds – 77 percent
Difference unchanged
Grade 5 Social Science
2011 meets or exceeds – 71 percent
2010 meets or exceeds 72 percent
Difference –1
*Grade 8 Reading
2011 meets or exceeds – 96 percent
2010 meets or exceeds – 95 percent
Difference +1
Grade 8 English/Language Arts
2011 meets or exceeds – 93 percent
2010 meets or exceeds – 92 percent
Difference +1
*Grade 8 Mathematics
2011 meets or exceeds – 78 percent
2010 meets or exceeds – 74 percent
Difference +4percent
Grade 8 Science
2011 meets or exceeds – 68 percent
2010 meets or exceeds – 66 percent
Difference +2
Grade 8 Social Studies
2011 meets or exceeds – 73 percent
2010 meets or exceeds – 70 percent
Difference +3
Source: Georgia Department of Education
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