Local students show steady rise, officials state

By Kathryn Purcell
Managing Editor

    Morgan County's official Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) results are in and, despite the well-publicized sixth- and seventh-grade Social Studies debacle, test results indicate improvement in many areas.
    "It looks like, tentatively, that scores have gone up in each of the Georgia Performance Standard (GPS) subjects we've tested," Assistant Superintendent Ralph Bennett said.
    Of first-graders in Morgan County, 91.6 percent of students met or exceeded the standard in Reading, 89.9 percent in English/Language Arts and 91.6 percent in Math. In second grade, 97.1 percent of students met or exceeded the standard in Reading, 92.6 percent in English/Language Arts and 92.6 percent in Math.
    Of third-graders in Morgan County, 93.9 percent of students met or exceeded the standard in Reading, 96.5 percent in English/Language Arts, 81.7 percent in Math, 85.1 percent in Science and 94.7 percent in Social Studies. In fourth grade, 91.6 percent of students met or exceeded the standard in Reading, 91.6 percent in English/Language Arts, 80.3 percent in Math, 87.4 percent in Science and 96.2 percent in Social Studies. In fifth grade, 95.1 percent of students met or exceeded the standard in Reading, 98 percent in English/Language Arts, 91.9 percent in Math, 92.3 percent in Science and 95.1 percent in Social Studies.
    Of sixth-graders in Morgan County, 92 percent of students met or exceeded the standard in Reading, 90.5 percent in English/Language Arts, 73.9 percent in Math and 76.1 percent in Science. In seventh grade, 94.9 percent of students met or exceeded the standard in Reading, 95.7 percent in English/Language Arts, 87.5 percent in Math and 82.8 percent in Science. In eighth grade, 92.5 percent of students met or exceeded the standard in Reading, 92.1 percent in English/Language Arts, 65.8 percent in Math, 60.4 percent in Science and 69.2 percent in Social Studies.
    First-grade Reading and English/Language Arts; third-grade Math; fourth-grade Reading, English/Language Arts, Math and Science; and sixth-grade Reading, English/Language Arts and Math experienced decreases from last year's results.
    The sixth- and seventh-grade results are lacking the area of Social Studies after these specific tests were invalidated by state Superintendent Kathy Cox because of the lack of alignment between the curriculum and what was tested.
    The Georgia Performance Standards and its predecessor, the Quality Core Curriculum (QCC), relate to curriculum - how it's taught and tested.
    A result of the No Child Left Behind Act, the current GPS were set in place years ago as part of a statewide effort to re-work the curriculum in the core subject areas of Reading, English/Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies. The CRCT tests whether students are on par with the curriculum they're being taught.
    "The overall move from QCC (Quality Core Curriculum) to GPS was to make more specific to teachers what should be taught in the curriculum," Bennett said. "The QCC was 'a mile wide and an inch deep.' GPS actually set standards for students...In addition to narrowing it [the curriculum], making it more manageable for teachers, it was also a more rigorous curriculum."
    GPS-based curricula have been rolled out at random. This year, the GPS curriculum for eighth-grade Math, Science and Social Studies was introduced and tested. Hence the reason for the "implementation dip," or decrease in scores in those areas from the 2007 CRCT results.
    "There is an implementation dip each year...GPS is tested for the first time," Bennett said.
    Overall, however, Bennett was satisfied with the results and credits the teachers with being able to keep up with the GPS curriculum.
    "We're pleased with the results," Bennett said. "The interesting thing is we continue to ask teachers to do more and more...and they've met that challenge."