The Newton County School System has released preliminary scores of its elementary and middle schools in the Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test for the 2012-2013 school year, and according to NCSS officials, the results show positive increases.
System-wide, NCSS Superintendent Gary Mathews said, all elementary and middle schools showed improvement on the CRCT tests in 2013 compared with 2012’s final CRCT results.
Mathews presented a PowerPoint of each school’s gains during the Board of Education meeting Tuesday.
“These are preliminary. If you know anything about the preliminary results in Georgia, they only get better. They do not get worse,” Mathews told the board.
Preliminary results for the 2013 CRCT by school and grade level were released Wednesday.
Although school-based grade level results are not available, overall school level averages have been released and according to Mathews, the averages clearly demonstrate continued improvement in NCSS standardized test scores.
Scores and gains for the system by grade level are as follows:
English and Language Arts: The system-wide average of scores by grade level in English language arts were: third grade, 88; fourth grade, 90; fifth grade, 95; sixth grade, 92; seventh grade, 91; and eighth grade, 94.
According to the release, system-level data for the language arts portion of the CRCT show that the overall number of students “Meeting or Exceeding Standards” increased in sixth grade. The number of students Exceeding Standards increased in the grades 3-7.
Math: The system-wide averages of scores in math were: third grade, 75; fourth grade, 84; fifth grade, 88; sixth grade, 78; seventh grade, 86; and eighth grade, 80.
The number of students “Meeting or Exceeding Standards” in math showed great gains in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth grades, according to officials. The number of students “Exceeding Expectations” also showed great gains in fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth grades.
Reading: In reading, the system-wide averages of CRCT scores were: third grade, 92; fourth grade, 93; fifth grade, 93; sixth grade, 96; seventh grade, 93; and eighth grade, 97.
NCSS reading scores showed great improvement at all grade levels, and seventh grade had gains in students “Meeting or Exceeding Standards” in 2012-2013, the release stated. The number of students Exceeding Standards on the reading test this year increased across the board, grades 3-8.
Science: Science results also showed tremendous improvement, with the number of students “Meeting or Exceeding Standards” increasing in fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth grades.
Those students Exceeding Expectations increased in grades 4-8.
The system-wide averages by grade level in science were: third grade, 75; fourth grade, 85; fifth grade, 78; sixth grade, 72; seventh grade, 85; and eighth grade, 78.
Social Studies: Newton County students showed the greatest improvement on the social studies CRCT in 2013.
The number of students “Meeting or Exceeding Standards” and the number of students Exceeding Standards increased in all grade levels.
The system-wide average of scores by grade level in social studies were: third grade, 83; fourth grade, 81; fifth grade, 81; sixth grade, 77; seventh grade, 80; and eighth grade, 77.
Final 2013 CRCT results, including grade-level scores, will be released by the state in June.
Retest data, which officials said historically indicates even better results for NCSS, will also be available at that time.
“Overall, when this spring is compared to last spring, [our] elementary and middle schools posted a 66.6 percent Rate of Improvement in the ‘Meets Standards’ category of the CRCT. Most impressively, NCSS elementary and middle schools demonstrated an 86.6 percent Rate of Improvement in the ‘Exceeds’ category of the CRCT. This marks the fourth consecutive year for the upward trajectory of state test scores in our county,” Mathews said.
“This is of special importance when you consider that the state increased the rigor of this spring’s CRCTs in light of the new Common Core State Standards.”
