Students in the Coweta County School System have improved their overall performance on the Criterion Reference Competency Test (CRCT) and have outscored state averages.
School system spokesperson Dean Jackson said test results for grades 3 through 8 show that Coweta County schools improved student performance in most grades and subjects in the last year and outperformed students throughout the state of Georgia with higher percentages of students meeting or exceeding state standards in all grades and subject areas.
The 2011 CRCT included 30 grade and subject areas and was designed to test students’ mastery of Georgia’s basic curriculum in the areas of reading, language arts, math, science and social studies in grades 3 through 8, Jackson said.
Jackson said the overall 2011 scores released by the Georgia Department of Education showed Coweta County students meeting or exceeding the standards at a higher rate than the state of Georgia as a whole in all 30 areas.
The Coweta County School System also improved its own average scores in 26 of the 30 areas tested, scoring the same in one area, and decreasing in three areas.
The Criterion Reference Competency Test is given to Georgia students in the spring of each school year. The CRCT is designed to measure how well students acquire the skills and knowledge described in the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS), Jackson said.
The assessments yield information on academic achievement at the student, class, school, system, and state levels. This information is used to diagnose individual student strengths and weaknesses as related to the instruction of the GPS, and to gauge the quality of education throughout Georgia, said Jackson.
