|
Subscribe!
770-267-8371
|
|
Thursday
September 2, 2010
|
|
|
|
Marketplace
|
|
Sections
|
|
Service Center
|
|
 |
|
Walton students gain on CRCT alternative
Published November 18, 2009
Although the annual results of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test is the ultimate test of Georgia schools’ progress and one of the primary benchmarks students must meet for promotion to the next grade, it is not the only major standardized test Walton schools use to measure educational gains.
Students in both Walton County Public Schools and Social Circle City Schools also take the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, a national test that allows school officials to compare students to national peers rather than just those throughout the state.
Bettye Ray, superintendent of Social Circle City Schools, said the ITBS was an important tool in measuring student success outside of Georgia standards.
“While we focus intently on the Georgia Performance Standards and the CRCT, we also believe it is important to administer a norm-referenced test,” Ray said. “This provides us with further information to improve instruction and allows us to compare our students’ performance with others in the same grade level across the country.”
Both systems saw gains in key areas, specifically mathematics in the higher grades. Walton saw math scores rise above the 50th percentile — meaning students in a grade, on average, scored higher than 50 percent of their peers nationally — in all grades; Social Circle also recorded math gains in the eighth grade, where the 52nd percentile was the highest average in four years.
Walton’s strongest performances came in the lower grades, however, specifically the second and fourth grades across the system. Students in those grades scored above the 60th percentile on all three areas of the test — reading, language and mathematics — including the highest scores of any grade on any test, at the 68th percentile for second grade reading and fourth grade math.
Louise Hutchens, testing coordinator for Walton schools, said the results were a vote of confidence in students and teachers alike.
“This year’s ITBS results show that our students are becoming more competitive at the national level,” Hutchens said. “We are very proud of the gains overall and by student subgroup, especially in fourth through eighth mathematics.”
Robert Daria, assistant superintendent for Walton schools, said although the ITBS is not used to measure the schools’ progress as the CRCT is, it was still a good indicator of school success.
“The goal is to reach a correlation between the ITBS and the CRCT — such that, if a third grader performs at grade three, seventh month on the ITBS midway through the year, we know that student will pass the CRCT,” Daria said. “When you look at these numbers, our students are performing at grade level or exceeding standards.”
Share |
Save |
Mail |
Print
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
