State reports rise in most CRCT scores, including math. Is rise significant?
The state released encouraging statewide CRCT results today with system and school results coming later.
Please note in the release below John Barge’s comment on how Georgia will be able to compare its student performance to other states once we move to Common Core and its companion testing. I assume that we will see a phase-out of the CRCT and a move to the new test series being developed by a consortium of states, including Georgia.
Also notable is the rise in math scores in fifth and eighth grades. Statewide, 87 percent of Georgia’s fifth graders passed the CRCT for math this year, compared to 82 percent last year. The passing rate on eighth grade math jumped four percent, to 78 percent.
I have been reading teacher comments on this blog long enough to wonder about these basic questions about the CRCT: What does CRCT performance tell us about our students? A testing expert once told me that states have to do a better job showing parents what a score means for their child, not just in the present but in the future. And most states, he said, have no idea what their state exam scores say about a child’s future.
Do kids with certain scores on the CRCT in middle school perform better on the state’s End of Course Tests in high school? Do high CRCTs align with high school or college readiness?
Does a low score mean the child didn’t learn the material well or the school didn’t teach it well?
From DOE:
Student results on the 2011 Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) are up in almost every grade and content area.
The official statewide results of the CRCT were released today and show a one-year improvement on 23 of the 30 content-area tests. There was no one-year change on five tests and a decrease on only two tests (grade 4 reading and grade 6 English/Language Arts).
“I am encouraged that the CRCT results show many more of our students mastering a more rigorous curriculum,” said State School Superintendent Dr. John Barge. “The credit for these tremendous results goes back to the local level, where they have raised the bar for all students.”
Superintendent Barge also added, “While I would like to be talking about these results from a more national perspective, we can’t use these results to show how our students are performing compared to students from across the country. With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards and the subsequent Common Assessments, that comparison will soon become possible.”
Among the highlights of the 2011 CRCT report:
- Reading, grade 5: Ninety-one (91) percent of students passed the reading CRCT,a one-year increase of one point, and a one-year increase of 10 points in the number of students exceedin the standard.
- Reading, grade 8: Ninety-six (96) percent of students passed the reading CRCT, a one-year increase of one point and an increase of seven points since GPS implementation (2006).
- Mathematics, grade 7: The pass rate was 89 percent, an increase of four points in one year and 15 points since GPS implementation (2007).
- Mathematics, grade 8: The pass rate was 78 percent, an increase of four points in one year and 16 points since GPS implementation (2008).
- Science, grade 3: The percentage of students exceeding the standard increased six points in one year.
- Social Studies, grade 6: The pass rate was 72 percent, an increase of eight points in one year.
State law requires that students in third, fifth and eighth grade meet or exceed expectations on the CRCT in reading in order to be promoted. Fifth and eighth grade students must also meet or exceed expectations on the CRCT in mathematics. In the 3rd, 5th, and 8th grade “gateway” years, more students than ever before are meeting and exceeding standards on the first attempt.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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115 comments Add your comment
Really amazed
June 10th, 2011
1:28 pm
@For What I Understand, yes, most reputable private school take either the itbs or standford 10 once a year to see how they compare with students nationally. They could care a less what or how they are doing Georgia basic standard wise CRCT!! I don’t think the itbs is a do all either. I do believe it’s a much better comparision than the crct, since the crct is base on what they SHOULD have learned not compared to achievement/knowledge. This is why I said they could just do away with crct and just do an itbs type test each year. It would still be a savings to GA DOE. We all know why they don’t. The scores for itbs will not show little Susie or Johnnie looking so wonderful. School adm. will even tell the parents don’t worry about the itbs as long as Susie meets the CRCT. The truth is that is what the school NEEDS to meet AYP!!! Parents should be more concerned if the child didn’t do so well on the itbs because it tells alot more of how the child will probably do in the future than the crct.
MD
June 10th, 2011
1:59 pm
Blaming teachers won’t help our kids. Parents just have to do what we can to help our kids.
Really amazed
June 10th, 2011
2:14 pm
@MD, you are correct; blaming teachers won’t help!!! This is not a teacher fault issue. It is our gov’t and DOE issue. This is why our great teachers are leaving. They are sick and tired about being told how and what they should teach!!!!! The aren’t able to teach the way or what or how they were trained to. They have been told how, what, when and where. If we would just let them TEACH we wouldn’t have to be subjected to such mediocrity!!!! Our children might then actually LEARN something then other passing the CRCT!!!!!!!
MomAndMathTeacher
June 10th, 2011
2:31 pm
My children are now in college. It should be clear to any metro-Atl parent/teacher that the CRCT scoring (not content) is designed to pass south Georgia students. We really have 2 Georgias anyway, those in the stronger educational zones around cities and then the very rural areas. That is not saying rural kids are less competitent, I am saying those systems do not pay teachers as well and often do not have the same level of technology and other advances of a richer school system. Having gone through and now teaching in the educational system it is clear to me that “generally” university bound children need to be in the “exceeds” catagory in order for them to be competitive for high school rigors. Also, I was not allowed to look at the math test this year to see how it compared to what we were teaching, but it is possible that the focus on math over the last couple of years is starting to yeild benefits.
Inman Park
June 10th, 2011
2:46 pm
If the scores dropped by a similar amount, would our media treat it as “insignificant?”
Somedontgetit
June 10th, 2011
4:18 pm
@Fedup
What you may not be aware of is the fact that there are “field test” questions on the test and they are scored if the student gets it correct. They are not scored if they are incorrect. So, 920 is a perfect score for regular test questions. A score of >920 would indicate that some field test questions were answered correctly.
Hmmm.....
June 10th, 2011
5:09 pm
@MomandMathTeacher…
I didn’t realize that being from rural/South Georgia made someone not as smart or educated. And yes, I know that you said that you were ‘ not saying rural kids are less competitent’, but when you have to preface your statement with “I’m not saying”, you are, in fact, saying it.
Poverty is an obstacle that many students must overcome, but people can live in poverty in all parts of the state, not just rural/South Georgia. A ‘poor’ student can and often times does, much better than your ‘well-to-do’ students.
From What I Understand
June 10th, 2011
5:13 pm
@ really amazed – I’m aware that private schools usually take the ITBS and/or SAT 10. My point was that what is considered “national” is different. It’s not truly national, for one, and because of the higher rate of private school students taking it, the average has shifted, so to speak. Private schools don’t care about the CRCT because they are neither bound by the GPS or the Federal regulations of NCLB.
BTW – did you know the state of Georgia tried the SAT 9 (at the time) around 2001? We had to drop it because of problems. There is no TRULY national test as there is no test that all students across the nation take (although I’m guessing the Common Core folks would like us to head in that direction).
I would agree that the ITBS is a better comparison among students’ performances because, despite popular conversation, the CRCT is not meant to compare student to student. It’s meant to compare student to specific criteria (which is achievement of knowledge). The ITBS is broader based, which is why it can’t be used for Georgia’s AYP purposes, but it still covers what students should’ve learned…in Iowa.
We would still have to pay for the test, whether it’s the ITBS, SAT 10, CRCT, or some national test that comes out of the Common Core. The savings aren’t really there if we were just to switch.
There is this huge, Machiavellian theory that the state is using the CRCT instead of the ITBS because they are afraid of what the scores will show. While I do strongly suspect there is manipulation of the difficulty of the questions and of the cut scores to be more favorable, and that one might want to “follow the money” as far as this huge push for testing goes, switching to the ITBS won’t meet the current needs for NCLB – that’s the biggest reason, IMO.
Every little Susie or Johnnie will not look wonderful even if they pass every question – normed tests don’t work that way – they are essentially curved. You will never have every student at the 99th percentile.
Schools shouldn’t tell parents not to worry about the ITBS – what they need to do is better explain ITBS scores, how they are determined, and what they mean. People think a 75%ile on the ITBS means the student got 75% of the questions right (true story). They also need to educate the parents on the difference between the two. If your child is getting in the 90th%ile on the ITBS, then they should definitely be exceeding standards on the CRCT – however, the reverse is not necessarily true.
If your child is not meeting standards on the CRCT, then you should be worried, regardless. If the GE on the ITBS is below where your child is, you should be worried. If you really want your child to do better on any standardized test, then shut off the TV, and make them read – that makes more difference than almost anything else.
State reports rise in most CRCT scores | Hot Trends India
June 11th, 2011
3:48 am
[...] –From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog source:http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2011/06/09/state-reports-rise-in-most-crct-scores/?cxntfid=bl… [...]
www.honeyfern.org
June 11th, 2011
10:09 am
Late to the party, but since this has not been mentioned yet…
800 = 62% (approximately)
850 = 82% (approximately)
So the previous poster who pointed out that students who “meet” won’t do well on Math 1, this is totally accurate. Unless a student “exceeds” there is a pretty good chance that they will not do well on future content.
I also agree that we should be phasing out CRCT, but my fear is that CCS assessments will not be any better; at least they will be a bit more authentic (rumors report that CCS will be given four times a year in different formats, almost like portfolio building, to give an overall picture). We will have to wait and see…
Fed Up
June 11th, 2011
11:20 pm
@Somedontgetit: I’m sure there are field test questions on the SAT too, but I’ve never heard of anybody getting more than a perfect 800.
From http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/DMGetDocument.aspx/CRCT%20Score%20Interpretation%20Guide%202008.pdf?p=6CC6799F8C1371F6BE7766F81D6BA67382079D4AE4D8E544B96E134DBFB9A428&Type=D
“Scores on GPS-based CRCT assessments are generally structured to range from 650
to 900 or above. Variations in test characteristics and student performance from one
administration to the next may result in different upper limits for each grade and content
area. However, scores above 900 on GPS-based CRCT generally indicate exceptional
performance.”
Pretty soon they’ll be giving out “smiley faces” in AP Calculus.
QE3
June 12th, 2011
9:05 am
One of mine was privately educated and homeschooled through 8th grade. He took the ITBS from 5th to 8th as a homeschooler, and I felt that they were accurate and gave helpful detailed info. He always scored in the 94+ percentiles. He attends one of the most challenging public schools in the state of Georgia and is a straight A student (math is his strong suit). The EOC’s are a breeze for him. He had a traditional math curriculum through 8th grade. The real problem with the CRCT’s is that they are “high stakes”. That is why they are always manipulated for favorable outcomes. If they were just a guide, along with class grades and teacher input, they would probably be more accurate. It is human nature not to incriminate oneself. A test under the control of the one affected by its outcome WILL be tampered with. CRCT’s are just more tax dollars down the drain, and are responsible for further dumbing down of the curriculum.
Dee
June 12th, 2011
5:06 pm
Dear substitute teacher,
You are angry and bored. Get a life.
Ole Guy
June 13th, 2011
1:30 pm
Does this “achievement” really make any difference at all; for that matter, does it make any sense? Recent topics of discussion on the woeful rates of hs graduations make this “miraculous” finding entirely moot, if not subject to public cynicism, given the recent cheating scandals on precisely the same test series.
Repeating my oft-mentioned warnings: LET’S STOP FOOLING OURSELVES AND DO THE RIGHT THINGS…THE UNFUN, UNPOPULAR, AND DISTASTEFUL THINGS FOR WHICH THERE ARE NO ALTERNATIVES, BUT SIMPLY MUST BE DONE. ANYTHING ELSE IS SIMPLY A WASTE OF PUBLIC MONIES, TIME, AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, FUTURE GENERATIONS.
ellie
June 16th, 2011
3:39 pm
Catlady, we are on the same page. They say the student has to pass the CRCT to be promoted in grades 3, 5, & 8. All the parents have to do is come in and sign a waiver, and the students know this. What difference does it make to them if they pass or fail? I teach 6th grade and had a student in my Math class that scored a 735 last year. And the parent was in denial of the student’s ability. The only way they can truly determine a student’s progress is to test them in the fall and the spring on the same objecties.