Coweta CRCT scores exceed state average
By BEN NELMS
bnelms@TheCitizen.com
Scores for the 2010 Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) for individual school systems were released last week. A breakdown of the results showing the percentage of students passing the tests indicated that Coweta County students beat the state average by a range of up to10 points in every test category and in every grade level, except for the score in eighth grade Social Studies where Coweta students were a half percentage point under the state average.
CRCT tests administered to first and second graders include those in Reading, English/Language Arts and Math. Beginning in third grade students are also tested on Science and Social Studies components.
Coweta first grade results showed 93.4 percent of students passing the Reading component, 89.2 percent passing the English/Language Arts portion and 89.3 percent passing the math component.
Second grade students testing in the same categories showed that 93.9 percent of students passed the Reading test while 88.8 percent passed the English/Language Arts portion and 90.3 percent passed the Math test.
Coweta’s third graders tallied a 92.3 percent pass rate in Reading, 89.4 percent in English/Language Arts, 82.2 percent in Math, 82.8 percent in Science and 83.8 percent in Social Studies.
With fourth grade students, 91.3 percent passed the Reading test and 89.7 percent passed the English/Language Arts component, while 80.5 percent passed Math, 84.4 percent passed Science and 79.6 percent passed the Social Studies test.
The pass rate for fifth graders showed 91.1 percent on the Reading test and 92.9 percent on the English/Language Arts test, while 83.5 percent passed the Math test along with 85 percent on Science and 79.7 percent on Social Studies.
Coweta’s sixth graders showed a pass rate of 93.3 percent in Reading, 92.8 percent in English/Language Arts, 77 percent in Math, 76.9 percent in Science and 74.3 percent in Social Studies.
Seventh graders across test components showed a pass rate of 92.4 percent in Reading, 94.1 percent in English/Language Arts, 89.1 percent in Math, 86.1 percent in Science and 78.3 percent in Social Studies.
And among Coweta’s eighth graders, 95.8 percent of students passed the Reading test and 93.9 percent passed the English/Language Arts portion, with 77.9 percent passing the Math test, 71.3 percent passing Science and 69.5 percent passing the Social Studies test.
Among the highlights of the CRCT results statewide were:
– Mathematics, grade 8: The pass rate was 74 percent, an increase of four points in one year and 12 points since GPS implementation (2008).
– Science, grade 7: 80 percent of students passed the science CRCT, a one-year increase of four points and an increase of 17 points since the implementation of Georgia Performance Standards in 2006.
– Reading, grade 5: 90 percent of students passed the reading CRCT, one-year increase of two points and an increase of nine points since GPS implementation (2006).
– Social Studies, grade 8: The pass rate was 70 percent, an increase of seven points in one year and 11 points since GPS implementation (2008).
“These results provide further evidence that our teachers are doing a great job implementing the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) and they are to be commended for their hard work,” said state School Kathy Superintendent Cox. “It also shows that when you raise expectations, Georgia students will rise up and meet that higher bar.”
