The results are in and they show that Coweta County elementary and middle school students in 2012 improved their performance on the Georgia Criterion Reference Competency Test (CRCT) and outscored schools across Georgia in nearly all categories.
Overall 2012 scores released by the Georgia Dept. of Education showed Coweta County students meeting or exceeding the standards at a higher rate than the state as a whole in 27 of the 30 areas covered by the test, according to school system spokesman Dean Jackson. And Coweta schools were even with state CRCT test performance in two areas and were under the state average by 1 point in 5th grade math, Jackson said.
“I’m very encouraged by the results,” said Superintendent Steve Barker. “Our students continue to perform well in comparison to students across the state and in surrounding districts.”
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 state curriculum. The CRCT exam is used to determine whether students meet or exceed the standards being tested, based on grade level expectations. A higher percentage of Coweta students exceeded expectations during the 2012 administration of the CRCT exams, with increases in the percentages of students exceeding standards in 20 of the 30 areas tested, Jackson said.
Jackson said Coweta students also did exceptionally well in their performance on CRCT science exams and social studies exams compared to their state counterparts, with Coweta students outperforming the state in all grades 3-8, and often exceeding state passage rates by 5 percentage points or more.
Coweta’s overall CRCT test performance improved by 3 points on the 4th grade science test, with 88 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards, and 6 points on the 8th grade science test, with 83 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards. Coweta’s performance also improved by 4 points on the 8th grade science test with 83 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards, Jackson said.
Citing another example, Jackson said Coweta schools outperformed Georgia by 5 percent in 2nd grade math, with 85 percent meeting or exceeding standards compared to 80 percent in Georgia as a whole, and 8 percent in 8th grade math with 85 percent meeting or exceeding standards compared to 77 percent in Georgia as a whole.
And on science exams in grades 3-8, an average of about 4 percent more students scored in the “exceeds expectations” category in 2012 than in 2011. While 90 percent of Coweta 4th graders met science standards overall in 2012, 50 percent of 4th graders actually exceeded the standards on the exam.
“That more students are moving into performance that exceeds standards reflects a lot of hard work on the part of both students and teachers,” said Barker.
Barker said that Coweta teachers have already begun preparing for next year’s roll-out of the state of Georgia’s new curriculum and new state curriculum assessments.
