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Georgia Department of Education: More Students Exceeding Standards

The Georgia Department of Education says more students are exceeding the state standards than last year

The Georgia Department of Education announced Thursday more students exceeded the standards on the 2012 Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT), the state-wide test that measures student gains from year to year.

Official results broken down by district and school will be availble in a few weeks, but in the meantime, the department is offering these facts:

Exceeding the Standards: One Year Improvement on 24 of the 30 Content-Area Tests

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Grade 3: When comparing 2012 performance to 2011, the percentage of students exceeding the standard in Reading, English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies increased by 7, 3, 3, 3, and 4 percentage points, respectively.

Grade 4: When comparing 2012 performance to 2011, the percentage of students exceeding the standard in Reading, English/Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies increased by 6, 1, 4, and 2 percentage points, respectively.  The percentage of students exceeding the standard in Mathematics remained the same.

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Grade 5: When comparing 2012 performance to 2011, the percent of students exceeding the standard in English/Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies increased by 5, 4, and 1 percentage point, respectively.  The percentage of students exceeding the standard decreased by 2 points in Reading and 5 points in Mathematics.

Grade 6: When comparing 2012 performance to 2011, the percent of students exceeding the standard in Reading, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies increased by 6, 2, 4, and 4 percentage points, respectively.  The percentage of students exceeding the standard remained the same for English/Language Arts.

Grade 7: When comparing 2012 performance to 2011, the percent of students exceeding the standard in Reading, English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies increased by 3, 5, 6, 6, and 4 percentage points, respectively.

Grade 8: When comparing 2012 performance to 2011, the percent of students exceeding the standard in Reading, Science, and Social Studies increased by 4, 1, and 3 percentage points, respectively.  The percent of students exceeding the standard decreased by 3 percentage points in English/Language Arts, and remained the same in Mathematics.  

Meets and Exceeds the Standards: One Year Improvement on 20 of the 30 Content-Area Tests

When comparing the percentage of students meeting or exceeding the standard, the greatest gains were seen in grade 5 Social Studies (+6 percentage points)  and grade 8 Science (+7 percentage points). There were decreases in four areas: grade 3 Science (-2 percentage points), grade 4 Mathematics (-1 percentage point), grade 5 Mathematics (-3 percentage points), and grade 8 Mathematics (-1 percentage point). There were no changes on six tests.

“While I am pleased to see an increase in the majority of the exams, I am concerned about those where we saw decreases or no change at all,” State School Superintendent Dr. John Barge said in a news release. “As we begin teaching the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards next school year, we know the curriculum and the tests will be more difficult, so we must continue to focus on successfully implementing the new standards. We have been offering, and will continue to offer, teachers the necessary professional development to ensure they are equipped to deliver these new, more rigorous standards and to prepare our students for the next step.”


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