Statewide school system scores for the 2012 Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) from grades 3-8 are in and Fayette County’s scores across each grade level easily beat the state average in every category.
CRCT is designed to measure how well students acquire the skills and knowledge described in the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS). 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, according to the Ga. Dept. of Education.
The 2012 test results included the areas of Reading, English/Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies.
The data available to date shows tests scores across an entire school district. School-level results will be available by mid-July, according to DOE.
Test results are broken down in to categories denoting such as “Did not meet the standard,” “Meets the standard,” “Exceeds the standard” and “Meets or exceeds the standard.”
In the case of Fayette County, the combined scores of students throughout the school system either met or exceeded the standard compared to the state average, and usually by a wide margin, in each grade level and in each test category.
A sampling of Fayette results compared to the state average easily illustrates the scoring level achieved by students in grades 3-8.
A total of 69.5 percent of Fayette 3rd graders exceeded the standard in Reading compared to 47.38 percent statewide. Looking at those meeting or exceeding the standard, the state average was 90.60 percent while Fayette’s average was 98.5 percent.
In the 4th grade Math test, 52.1 percent of Fayette students exceeded the standard compared to 44.03 percent of students statewide. As for meeting or exceeding that standard, 91.8 percent of Fayette students did so compared to 80.21 percent of 4th graders statewide.
Science scores tend to be a bit lower across the state. But that was not the case locally. A total of 63.6 percent of Fayette 5th grade students exceeded the standard in Science compared to 41.22 percent across Georgia. Examining the percentage of students meeting and exceeding the standard, 92.3 percent of Fayette 5th graders accomplished the task compared to 77.96 percent of 5th graders statewide.
Social Studies is another test category that tends to produce lower overall scores statewide. Only 38.19 percent of 6th graders statewide exceeded the Social Studies standard while 58 percent of Fayette students reached that level. When it comes to meeting or exceeding the standard, 89.8 percent of Fayette met the mark compared to 73 percent of 6th graders across the state.
English/Language Arts is one of the categories that shows a high level of proficiency statewide. A total of 45.73 percent of 7th grade students across Georgia exceeded the standard compared to 63.2 percent of Fayette 7th graders. When compiling results for those meeting or exceeding the standard, Fayette comes in at 98.1 percent compared to 93.34 percent across the state.
Returning to one of the categories that can sometimes present difficulty, Fayette 8th graders in the Science component saw 38.9 percent of their peers exceed the standard compared to 20.87 percent statewide. And when combining the results of those meeting or exceeding the standard, 91 percent of Fayette students made that mark compared to 73.52 percent of students across Georgia.
For a complete breakdown of CRCT scores by grade level, test and school system visit http://www.doe.k12.ga.us and click on the 2012 CRCT results link under Press Releases.
