Fayette, Forsyth and Decatur lead metro area on CRCT. But all have poverty levels of 25 percent or less.
Speaking of how the CRCT is graded, the Georgia Department of Education released system-wide data today on the 2012 scores.
The highest-scoring metro systems were Fayette, Forsyth and Decatur City, all of which are high-performing systems with relatively low poverty rates.
In terms of low-income students, as measured by students eligible for free/reduced lunches on the most recent state report cards:
•19 percent of students are low-income in Forsyth
•22 percent of students are low-income in Fayette
•25 percent of students are low-income in Decatur
In comparison, consider that Clayton, one of the low performing systems, has 82 percent of its students qualifying for free/reduced lunch. The state average is 57 percent. In Atlanta, 76 percent of students are low-income.
Here is a link to an AJC database of the district scores.
Students in Fayette, Forsyth and Decatur City school systems outperformed their metro-area peers on 2012 state exams, according to scores released Thursday.
In these counties, students excelled in reading and math while results showed that students in Clayton, DeKalb and Atlanta City trailed in tested subjects.
The Criterion-Referenced Competency Test is given annually to public school students in grades three through eighth, and measures whether students are testing on grade level in English/language arts, social studies, reading, math and science. The test will be deemphasized in the coming years as Georgia moves away from federal No Child Left Behind accountability measures to a new accountability system of its own.
Since 2000, the exams were critical in determining whether schools met annual academic goals, known as adequate yearly progress or AYP. Schools and districts that didn’t meet goals, which increased every year, were subject to sanctions under state and federal law.
Soon, the state will introduce a new index system that will assign each school a numerical rating from one to 100, and CRCT esults will be one of several factors that make up a school’s rating.
State data released earlier this month showed Georgia students overall improved on the exam for the third year in a row. English/language arts, social studies and reading results increased this year, while math and science scores remained flat or dropped slightly. School-level CRCT data is not expected to be released until mid-July.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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Truth Today
June 28th, 2012
9:24 pm
Well, I find myself intrigued and energized by the comments on this blog. There seems to be a skewed response toward culture which is clearly associated with race. As an African-American with a doctorate, I find that such opportunities as provided by this blog cannot be overlooked. First, as an educator, I would agree that it is culture. However, by no means should culture be a scapegoat. I have seen student perform overwhelmingly well even when they come from poverty and subcultures as many of you allude to. If one delves into the data, you will see that there are many students in those low-performing school districts that outperform students in higher performing districts. The data must be viewed and analyzed without making blanket assertions that imply every student is a victim of their culture. Unfortunately, the African-American subculture does include elements of over-socialization and low priority for education among many families. However, the context of this sub-culture must be recognized. The children of poverty did not ask to be born into such conditions. Truth be told, their parents did not request to be born into poverty. Going even further back, their ancestors did not implore to be born into poverty. Yes, many, I say most, African-Americans have escaped the cycle of poverty through their own efforts resulting from their own individual and family values of hard work, love and respect for education, and their desire to overcome historical poverty. It is most unfortunate that Blacks are a group that have many families overcome by the cycle of systemic poverty as a result of America’s history. Now, this is no excuse for remaining in poverty. But the reality is that systemic poverty becomes a cycle that is self-defeating and difficult to break although not impossible. For many Americans to abase African-Americans of poverty as they ride upon the privileges their descendants were afforded because they were White although immigrants in this country, while African-Americans were systemically and systematically denied access to opportunities, and therefore wealth, is hypocritical, uninformed, and unsympathetic at best. Yes, African-Americans had to fight for the right to access jobs, create and sustain businesses, obtain loans to purchase assets, and to just be respected as an equal. This fight continues for many of poverty. This fight for economic equality is revealed in student achievement data. The relationship between income level and student achievement has been established. The relationship between poverty and culture is established. Therefore, the relationship between culture and achievement is logical. However, group culture is not created in a year but over a period many decades or centuries. The culture is a result of external forces and internal inclinations that merge to forge a culture that is often difficult or impossible to change without very intentional decisions. Yes, there are many African-Americans that changed and continue to change their outcomes although they were born into a sub-culture that they did not create. However, as the test data reveals, there are many African-Americans in the metro Atlanta area, that have yet to overcome the sub-culture of their birth that is often rooted in poverty and the elements that define such. Unfortunately, a challenge for African-Americans of poverty is that of acknowledging decisions they must make to overcome historical poverty and it’s consequences during a time in history when the decendants of those who greatly contributed to their sub-culture of poverty, seem to blame them for their reality without ever acknowledging the context of their poverty or by remaining in denial of how their present actions of criticism and defamation and their past actions contributed to the sub-culture that currently imprisons them. If one takes a look at the context of anonymous comments on blogs on any website, you will see how challenging it is for African-Americans to merge into the mainstream due to the mainstream’s adamant degradation and accalamtion of their inferiority in most, if not all areas of group comparisons. Well, what is the answer? The answer is multifaceted in nature and application. First, Blacks must ensure that they adhere to family values of marriage although historical poverty has given them the message that marriage is not worth the effort. Secondly, Blacks must recognize as a whole that 7 out of 10 children born to unmatched men and women is a major contributor to the failure as evidenced in the high prison rates of fatherless young men, and now women, as evidenced by the number of children living with mothers below the poverty line, as evidenced by the number of African-Americans that drop-out of school, and as evidenced by the number of African-American children without health insurance. Thirdly, African-Americans must build community pride and financial resources by opening and supporting businesses in their communities and other communities while also spending less on material things and increasing their cash assets. Fourthly, African-Americans must continue to ignore those who blame them for society’s ills while also acknowledging the negative aspects of their culture by abhorring any value that compromises their efforts toward becoming a model group. Fifthly, African-Americans must spend less time being influenced by the negative aspects of the White mainstream while also adhering to the positive aspects of African-American culture that contributed to the greatness of this nation. Finally, African-Americans should become internationally connected by building relationships with groups beyond the borders of the United States to ensure that we convey the message fitting of our great history tonthe world thereby showing the world that the image portrayed by White America to the world has been inaccurate and wholly the result of White America’s denial of their own shortcomings and contribution to the sub-culture that they are so apt to highlight, abase, or criticize in lieu of recognizing their behaviors and actions that contributed to the plight of approximately 12 percent of the American population. In conclusion, the rise of Hispanics will cause the role of African-Americans to become less spectrumized thereby contributing to our silent rise. Yes, we have fought for freedom. Yes, we have fought for equal access to education. Yes, we fought for equal access to facilities. Yes, we have fought for equal access to jobs. Yes, we have fought for equal access to wealth. Now, it is time for us to fight for OURSELVES. It is time for us to improve ourselves, our families, and our schools, and our communities. We have been fighting to give ourselves that which others obtained by privilege, now we must fight to give ourselves the privilege of being who God wants us to be regardless of what White America and other groups think of us. Then, and only then, will the student achievement equal or exceed that of other groups.
This is just my opinion.
Really?
June 28th, 2012
9:48 pm
Forgive our Good Mother. She struggles mightily with gender issues.
Lee
June 28th, 2012
11:24 pm
@Maureen says: “Just a preemptive strike against the usual suspects who will argue it’s racial.”
Take it a step further Maureen and look at the test score distribution within those three districts and I will wager they will follow a predictive pattern, high to low, of Asian/White at the top with Hispanic/Black at the bottom.
…. just as it was a few weeks ago when you posted the systems with the top SAT scores in Ga.
William Casey
June 28th, 2012
11:35 pm
GOODMOTHER goes a little overboard on the sports thing from time-to-time but, fundamentally, she is correct. Academics in Georgia have long been subordinated to athletics. This is coming from someone who coached basketball, football and baseball for over 20 years and who loves sports. I’ll give one stark example among many. In 1986, after 11 years of teaching and coaching, I took a sabatical to begin a doctorate program, knowing that I’d need a job in 1987 ($$$). I interviewd for a job at Fulton County’s Crestwood High School (now Chattahoochee.) My academics mattered little (modesty prevents elaboration but some are listed in the ‘71 edition of Who’s Who in American Universities LOL.) I got the job because I could coach football!!! The students got lucky because I could also flat-out teach. It isn’t always like that.
Until we seperate athletics from the high school (do them as associated clubs), academics will not significantly improve. Goodmother is right about this.
Confused
June 28th, 2012
11:56 pm
Forsyth county is only 76% white?? Have the demographics in that county really changed that quickly?? Wasn’t that county all-white a decade ago?
jennylyon
June 29th, 2012
3:52 am
Although past recessions have been easier on college grads than high school grads, the needs of a “”21st century economy”" have magnified the stark difference between education level and joblessness that is why we need degree from High Speed Universities
Good Mother
June 29th, 2012
7:00 am
Sad says it ver well. He or she says “Many blacks who view sports think its their way out of poverty really. That’s the ultimate goal is to have money in all this.”
Exactly. They are hanging their hopes on something that will likely never happen. The chances of a young kind making to a pro sports career are miniscule and that is what has to change about that sub-culture. It has to change to hanging their hopes on academics instead and changing their attitudes about having children until they are mature enough and able enough financially.
The NAACP has just recognized this — that poor blacks hang their hopes on the lottery just as they do a pro sports career. The chance of winning the lottery is even less than the chance of getting a pro sports career. But look at what the NAACP does — they want to make the lottery ILLEGAL. Yes, instead of educating their race to NOT play the lottery they want to force everyone else to stop playing it. Again, where is the effort to make an indivicual accountable for his or her own actions?
If playing the lottery is a bad idea for poor blacks, theNAACP should educate poor blacks to NOT play the lottery and waste their money on a fool’s game. Spend those dollars on pencils and paper and food. But instead, we all have to quit playing so that others don’t have to be accountable for their own actions. I guess then we need to make alcohol illegal again so that a few others won’t have to be accountable for their own actions either? When will this end? An individual has to stand up and take control of their own lives. We gladly help those who help themselves. It’s all the ones who blame us for their own choices that we resent.
Good Mother
June 29th, 2012
7:18 am
To Really? We all struggle mightily with gender issues. When the black male gender decides to create children and not pay for them — then we ALL struggle to pay for the children he created and abandoned. It becomes a gender issue for all of us…including you.
NONPC
June 29th, 2012
8:27 am
I believe the accessories of poverty — poor nutrition, homelessness or changing apartments every two months, bunking on grandmom’s couch, lack of medical attention, including eyesight, addictions — contribute to the gap.
Maureen
Those students only make up a tiny fraction of the “impoverished”. Sorry, but your emotions are getting in the way of your common sense.
RCB
June 29th, 2012
10:05 am
The USDA asks that you “text” them your information for free children’s meals this summer (for the poor) and they will provide you the nearest location to get the free meals. Texting assumes you have a cell phone, an accessory. I’m sure they all have the basic phone, too–not a smartphone.
Brit
June 29th, 2012
10:20 am
@ Truth Today. Thank you for posting one of the most well-expressed and intelligent comments I have seen on this blog. I am sick of people bashing the African-American ‘culture’ without any thought to context or history.
ELMom
June 29th, 2012
11:19 am
“The minority kids in those schools are encouraged to compete academically” BINGO!!! Regardless of race or economics this is what should be happening in schools from day 1. If you set expectations children will rise to those expectations. I have walked into too many failing APS schools and seen a culture where not much is expected of the children and the staff do not have a clear direction from their leaders and therefore do not have set expectations themselves. The politics, p.c.ness, bureaucracy etc. must stop so that we can fix our education system.
@skipper Let me first say that the issue is most definitely cultural. There are many facets of black society. Unfortunately with the popularity of Madea, hip-hop etc. most people only see on facet of black society. “When other blacks try to do better, their own often hold them back” This is called the crawfish theory. Crawfish when in a pot of boiling hot water will pull each other back into the pot. None of them can escape. This is a problem that we must admit to so that we can fix it. Someone on this site recently commented that one of APS’ high achieving charter schools that has a high poverty and high minority population is “bougie”. Too sad…
@ Good Mother Please do not get me started on the NAACP and their lack of encouraging individual accountability. They need some serious refocus as they have lost site of their original mission which was to empower black Americans to better themselves. Instead the NAACP continues to insist on encouraging people to blame someone else for their problems. Playing the lottery to much? blame the system they force you to buy a ticket. Your kids are skipping school? Blame the system. They don’t have enough truancy officers to stop your kid from skipping.
The Weekly Reader (06/29) | Leonard Presberg
June 29th, 2012
2:40 pm
[...] week of June, it’s also CRCT results week: Fayette County did very well, but of course, as Maureen Downey points out, we do have an advantage: The highest-scoring metro systems were Fayette, Forsyth and [...]
Jarod Apperson
June 29th, 2012
4:06 pm
I am surprised to hear that some do not believe income is tied to achievement.
Income is undeniably tied to achievement, and not just at the low end. Take a look at the wealthiest white enclaves and you will see that kids who live in Morningside’s million dollar homes outscore middle-class white kids by leaps and bounds. A huge part of a child’s education comes from interaction with their parents and community. If parents have bachelor’s degrees, or better yet graduate degrees, and high-income jobs, their kids are very likely to excel.
IMO, it has nothing to do with race. However, these discussion end up centering on race because it’s the information our government chooses to collect and provide. The state doesn’t provide parental education level. The state doesn’t provide income of parents (though they do provide percent “economically disadvantaged,” there is a wide range within that category and no income data is provided for those not “economically disadvantaged”).
Show me the scores of black/white/asian/hispanic kids whose parents both graduated with honors from UGA and earn $100,000 per year. I seriously doubt there will be a meaningful difference between the races performance.
I believe the racial lenses we use in these discussions are largely proxies for education and income. If the state would collect and provide that data, I suspect we could better focus our energies on the real problems and stop misunderstanding everything as race driven.
teacher&mom
June 30th, 2012
9:25 am
I work in a rural district. Race isn’t an issue. Poverty is an issue. We have around 60% of our population receiving free & reduced lunches. I suspect we have another 10-20% who miss the eligibility by less than $10K/year.
Poverty is the issue that no one wants to address. Why? Because to address it at the classroom level means more spending.
We live in a State that bitterly resents education funding.
IMHO, here’s how we could begin to address the poverty achievement gap.
1-Fund summer school for elementary students who are trailing behind their peers and students who are eligible for free/reduced lunch. Make the summer school a vibrant educational experience….not a worksheet/computer test-prep session. Keep them in school year-round, but make the summer session fun and educational.
2- Create summer work-based learning for students in middle school and high school. Allow them to earn credit toward graduation and experience on-the-job training. Schools will have to provide transportation and perhaps meals….but just think about the long-term benefits for the student. (You will be surprised at the number of students living in poverty who are unable to get their driver’s license at age 16.)
3- Stop relying on standardized test scores as the ONLY measure of success.
Good Mother
June 30th, 2012
4:51 pm
Jarrod Apperson says “I am surprised to hear that some do not believe income is tied to achievement.”
Bad personal decisions cause and maintain poverty. In these times with JIm Crow long behind us and Title iX long behind us, there is absolutely no excuse to remain in poverty. The road to middle-class is education. It is a long road for sure with work along the way but it is well-marked and well-traveled. One just has to choose to take that road.
Good Mother
June 30th, 2012
7:03 pm
Brit says “I am sick of people bashing the African-American ‘culture’ without any thought to context or history.”
Which translates to “the cause is slavery” which is over 200 years ago.
Brit, let’s go with your argument that slavery causes blacks to remain poor. If all black Americans remained poor, you might have a flicker of an argument but you don’t because a significant number of blacks who came from slavery chose education and are now middle and upper class citizens. Michelle O’Bama is a great example. She descended from slaves. She is tall and athletic and deliberately did not choose a basketball scholarship to college. She chose academics. She studied and succeeded and she chose a man for her that would be (and is) a good husband and father.
So your argument that slavery causes blacks to be poor is disproven by Michelle herself and others like her and if you want to go even further — Michelle is black AND a woman. Title IX helped her as it helped me.
Our grandparents had a beef; they had a right to say “it ain’t fair — I can’t succeeed because of barriers — but for our generation (Michelle’s generation and younger) there is simply no excuse. Education is free and available. The government and our society provide access to it and encourage it. It is the sub-culture of black-Americans that discourages education and this is a RECENT occurrence. MLK and all the civil rights leaders got their heads bashed in and died for the right to an education — and they won it. Sadly though, that generation’s grandchildren throw that opportunity away and dismiss it as “acting white,” that is a new occurrence and is not caused by slavery over 200 years ago.
and by the way I’ve never heard the term “unmatched” parents. Men and women aren’t “matched” like socks. We choose our mates. and the point you’re making is moot. “Unmatched” parents aren’t the cause of poverty — it’s the lack of commitment to providing emotionally and financially for the children that causes poverty. One does not have to be “matched” at all or ever. I have single friends that have chosen not to marry and have a child by a real sperm donor — and they’re doing great because they were mature enough and financially able to provide for that child. One doesn’t have to be “matched” as you say one just have to be committed to the children.
Good Mother
July 1st, 2012
7:48 am
Jarod, you say “Show me the scores of black/white/asian/hispanic kids whose parents both graduated with honors from UGA and earn $100,000 per year. I seriously doubt there will be a meaningful difference between the races performance.”
Jarod, you are making a good point. When individuals of any race choose an education, they can and do succeed. That is proof that there is little, if any, discrimination that causes poverty. Just as you said, when anyindividual of any race chooses an education, they are financially successful.
Now, go see the flip side. Go look at poor Americans of all races. Look at their financial and education outcomes. Asians and Indians succeed academically EVEN WHEN they are poor. Black and Hispanic Americans don’t succeed academically. Whites are somewhere in the middle.
It’s about the beliefs and values of the sub-cultures in America and the family and individual values.
I believe no one race has the corner on innate intelligence. We have geniuses and low intelligence in every race. It’s values.
It’s a simple equation:
Our values=we spend(time+money)
Where we spend our time and money determines our real values. For most black and white Americans, sports is valued most and academics least. For Indian and Asian Americans, academics is valued most and sports least. The outcomes are the proof.
Jarod Apperson
July 1st, 2012
10:30 am
Good Mother, there’s a lot more that goes into the picture than “values.” Knowledge is a big part too. If a child starts falling behind at age two (which has been shown to be the case for those who struggle in school), it’s hard to say he just doesn’t have a good values system. How can a two year old be self responsible? An 18 year old can, but by the time he gets old enough to be self responsible, he is in a huge hole. The same thing probably happened to his mother and father. Not to detract from the success of Asian Americans, but there are lots of barriers to entry that exist for Asians compared to say Hispanics. So to some extent the Asians that make it to the USA are a pre-selected bunch. Unless schools are able to overcome the disadvantages some kids enter with, the cycle of poverty will continue. I just don’t think that’s an issue of race or values, but it’s a result of the huge disadvantages a child starts out with whose parents have less vocabulary, or can’t read well, or don’t understand math. Even if the parents have amazing values, that’s a lot of challenges to overcome. It does happen. Just not as often as we would like.
Good Mother
July 1st, 2012
1:15 pm
Jarod, once again you are missing the point and this time it’s purposeful. You’re dodging the issue.
the issue IS NOT the two year old. Let me repeat — the issue is NOT the two year old. They are innocent of course.
The issue is the ADULT BLACK MALE who decides to create the baby that he and his (I’ll use the new black term coined by a poster here)…the issue is the ADULT BLACK MALE who decides to create the baby tht he and his “unmatched partner” make a decision to create and then abandon for we taxpayers to care and provide for.
That’s a sub-cultural value — WHEN to bear children. Should humans create babies they are too poor and too immature to care for? WHy of course they should. That’s their cultural value — just make babies for others to care for….
and the NAACP should be pulling out all the stops and making it their mission to EDUCATE their people to postpone child creation until they are emotionally and financially able.
So, Jarod, stop dodging the facts and the truth. No one would argue that it is OK to produce children one is unable to care for.
Your silly little argument that I was blaming a two-year old is just ridiculous.
Good Mother
July 1st, 2012
1:21 pm
Jarod you write “but there are lots of barriers to entry that exist for Asians compared to say Hispanics. So to some extent the Asians that make it to the USA are a pre-selected bunch.”
Baloney, Jarod.
Asians work at nail salons and SAVE their money to send for their family members. There is no pre-selection there. They aren’t the best and the brightest of the Asians — they do have a sub-cultural value though. FATHERS, real fathers, care for the children as do the mothers and they study, educated themselves and succeed.
Your assertions are just silly. You’ll say anything to escape responsibility. It’s typical.
So just tell me this, Jarod. What excuse do you provide for having children and more children and more children — oh six, seven eight baby daddy’s? Tell me your silly excuse for that. I guess it’s all my fault, isn’t it? I’m not black so I forced them to have unprotected intercourse, right?
Sheesh.
You and your kind will continue to wallow in poverty with that attitude.
Jarod Apperson
July 1st, 2012
4:25 pm
Adults were at one point two year olds. My point was that it’s a cycle that starts before children are old enough to be self responsible.
I personally do not “wallow in poverty.” I also don’t think that we are having a productive dialogue, so I will leave it here.
The truth hurts
July 1st, 2012
9:32 pm
Call it what you want, but it all revolves around discipline. The top schools take care of problem children and the bottom schools do not. I have personally sent two kids this year packing because they couldn’t behave and do their work (not because of disabilities). This is the only reason private schools tend to do well. It’s not the teachers but the administrations fault if their school fails. Fortunately, we don’t have the volume of behavior problems in Forsyth yet but it is coming. The irony is that if schools act on the problem children then the state classifies the school as unsafe which jeopardizes he admins jobs. So it is a lose lose battle for public schools with a high percentage of problem children.
So…. It’s not race, it’s not culture, it’s not ses; it’s discipline….Period. We need to rethink the idea of every child gets a free education to a more appropriate idea of you get it until you screw up your chances.
Anyone disagree!!
The truth hurts
July 1st, 2012
9:36 pm
One more thing….to encourage parental participation, parents making below a certain income level, say 50,000, should get a tax break if their student does as told and stay out of trouble. If not they should pay a tax penalty for wasting our time and tax dollars!!!
Brit
July 3rd, 2012
10:15 am
@GM I think you need to work on your reading comprehension skills. Where exactly did I write “the cause is slavery”? You put it in quotation marks although you seem to be the first person who said it. What I said was I am sick of people making comments about AA culture without any understanding of context. Your comment about slavery goes to show how poor your understanding of history is.
Oh, and I am British. We have the same problem with Black Britons failing at school. Many of them are not descended from slaves.