How Decatur Students Ranked Statewide on 2010 CRCT Tests
Decatur Metro | June 27, 2010 | 12:42 pmThe Georgia Department of Education released the 2010 CRCT scores on June 23rd. Here’s how Decatur’s students fared overall and compared to the other 281 public school districts in the state of Georgia, according to the AJC database.
Results are ordered: Subject, Percentage Passed (Statewide Rank)
- First Grade – Reading 96.6% (42nd), English 88.6% (17th), Math 91.4% (9th)
- Second Grade – Reading 92.5% (14th), English 88.5% (37th), Math 89.4% (30th)
- Third Grade – Reading 91.6% (29th), English 87.4% (64th), Math 81.1% (38th), Science 85.8% (26th), Social Studies 84.7% (29th)
- Fourth Grade – Reading 94.3% (10th), English 90.3% 53rd), Math 82.4% (42nd), Science 87.2% (64th), Social Studies 82.8% (30th)
- Fifth Grade – Reading 91.4% (14th), English 92.5% (7th), Math 85.6% (33rd), Science 81.3% (10th), Social Studies 86.6% (11th)
- Sixth Grade – Reading 91.5% (20th), English 92.6% (25th), Math 84.7% (25th), Science 81.5% (24th), Social Studies 80.3% (17th)
- Seventh Grade – Reading 92.5% (30th), English 93.1% (6th), Math 90.2% (35th), Science 81.6% (35th), Social Studies 84.3% (28th)
- Eighth Grade – Reading 96.7% (30th), English 96.2% (77th), Math 86.3% (23rd), Science 89.6% (14th), Social Studies 79.1% (34th)
Hat-tip to The DNO, who notes that in many areas CSD actually ranked even higher when looking at “median scale score” in the raw data, instead of just the percentage of students who passed. (According to the DNO, using this metric of evalution all Decatur grade levels ranked among the top 10 districts statewide in Reading.) This is due to the fact that in many areas and grades, a larger number of CSD students not only “met” but “exceeded” state standards, thereby bumping the median score above districts with more students who just met the standards.
The 8th grade English results don’t look right–96.2% met standards, one of the highest percentages in the list for all grades, all subjects, but the lowest ranking in the whole list–77…..unless the 8th grade English test was particularly easy this year and just about all kids everywhere in Georgia passed it.
Wonder what’s up with the percentages meeting standards slightly but steadily declining from 1st to 3rd grade, then back up 4th and 5th grade (Glennwood). Could be the elementary school populatiion–the breakdown by school will be interesting–or could be the test. Little ones don’t need to be wasting several days every year doing these standardized tests. Luckily, the state can’t afford them until 3rd grade next year.
I don’t care how the kids did on Social Studies. My littlest one told me the other day that a picture she saw was either of the Colisseum or the Parthenon, she couldn’t remember which one but she’d studied Greek and Roman architecture at school. That’s more than I knew at her age!
Since these are the percentages that “passed” they combine those that “meet” and those that “exceed.” Often, CSD students have a remarkably high number of kids that exceed on the tests. I’m proud of that.
No, I’m not all about tests- just to be clear. However, in most cases the tests are aligned to the standards and are a fair way for me (and the state) to measure understanding. When my students don’t do well on a particular strand I redesign my unit.
Also, I agree that the 8th grade English numbers look odd. I haven’t looked at the raw data. DM- have time to investigate?
Raw data says 97%. That particular test must’ve been dang easy. There’s only a few schools that scored below 90% on 8th Grade Reading.
Nope, Karass.. the CRCTs for the little kids are back in. In his infinite wisdom, Sonny ordered that the state DOE put the CRCTs back in for 1st and 2nd grade and told DOE that they had to find places to cut elsewhere. Just b/c the legislature isn’t funding CRCTs for little kids apparently isn’t a good enough reason for DOE to forego them. Of course the vast, vast majority of states do not start CRCT testing until 3rd grade… I guess that’s not a good enough reason either.
Sooooo…. according to Sonny, it looks like testing little kids is more important than teachers’ jobs, classroom supplies, reasonable class sizes, art/music/PE, etc.
I’m feeling a bubbling fury attack coming on. When will our public officials have to show that they can “meet” expectations on some kind of competency test before being allowed to run for office? They could call it the P-CRCT. I don’t even care if it’s nationally normed or not. I don’t think many of our public officials in Georgia could pass the 8th grade CRCT tests, never mind something that demonstrated competency at governing.
Nooooo! Tell me it’s not true.
Yet another another reason I love Sonny and his repug friends. . He made us the “best managed state” in the nation. That was his stated goal!
On adding back the CRCT for 1st and 2nd grade – Sonny should have to administer it then. It is torture for all involved. Teachers have to read the tests aloud (not sure about 2nd). It starts students off in their academic careers with a dread of testing. The teachers are becoming extremely familiar with what’s on the tests so what little validity the tests had is really destroyed.
The teachers read the test aloud in 1st and 2nd grade; third grade is the first time that the questions are not read aloud. That’s probably why there is often a dip in scores in 3rd grade–the kids with dyslexia, or other learning disabilities that affect reading, or who just happen to be in that group of children who learn to read later than others with no adverse consequence, can’t depend on their auditory learning and test taking skills. So even if they are math geniuses, if they can’t read the problem well, they won’t test well.
This data does not include failures so the numbers are somewhat skewed.
Don’t understand this. Don’t you just subtract the percent of “met expectations” (passed) from 100% to get the percent who did not meet expectations, i.e. failed?