Clarke students take on CRCTs

Posted: Wednesday, April 14, 2004

   Clarke County elementary and middle school students are sitting down to high-stakes tests this week as the school district administers state standardized tests that are a primary measure of state- and federally mandated academic achievement.

   Clarke County students are tackling one subject a day on the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests - they'll finish the basic math, language arts and reading categories today, which means that first- and second-graders will be done with the CRCTs for the year.

   Students in third through eighth grades will take social studies and science tests through the end of the week.

   The scores on the tests are used in determining whether individual schools and a school district have met academic benchmarks under the federal No Child Left Behind law and state achievement requirements.

   Schools that receive federal Title I funds for poor children but don't make ''adequate yearly progress'' under the laws can be placed in a ''needs improvement'' category. If they don't make ''AYP'' for several years in a row, they can face sanctions up to restructuring and state takeover.

   ''There is pressure,'' said Ginger Davis-Beck, director of districtwide assessment. ''But it's one of those things they've prepared for all year. ... It's a very stressful time for teachers, because they have to work hard to get kids to take it seriously, but they don't want to put too much pressure on them.''

   Georgia third-graders also had faced being held back if they didn't meet benchmarks - a hurdle fifth- and eighth-graders also will face in the future.

   A compromise reached by the state legislature last week will allow third-grade students who don't pass the tests to enter ''transition'' classes in the fall. In these classes, they would get extra tutoring, and they'd be immediately promoted to fourth grade at any point in the year, if they were able to pass the test.

   This year's testing is going well, Davis-Beck said, and teachers haven't encountered any major problems.

   Last year, most students - except those in the fourth, sixth and eighth grades - got out of taking the tests after officials discovered a printing foul-up that duplicated questions from practice exams.

   The error also complicated school district efforts to track test results over multiple years.

   Last year's results also weren't available until months after the tests were taken, reducing their usefulness to teachers creating lesson plans in response to academic strengths and weaknesses.

   This year's results are supposed to be back by the second week of May, Davis-Beck said.



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