The final year of CRCT scores for grades three-eight throughout the state were released this week. Did we score high or low? It seems like a little bit of both.

More than half of our scores from Newton County improved from last year, which is a good sign. Third-graders improved in every subject area, which is a great sign. But there’s always room for improvement, because can’t we strive for improvement from more than half of our students?

While more than half of our scores improved, only seven of 30 tied with or beat the state average. We need to improve there. But it’s hard to point to one group of teachers or administrators or tests as an explanation for good or bad scores. If students are constantly moving schools, which in the past has been reasoning for low test scores, and are still scoring on par with everyone else, then that leads us to believe teachers are implementing the curriculum correctly.

And as much as we look to compare scores and keep blaming the system, teachers or students, we can only do so much if the method of testing keeps changing.

Earlier this week we reported on the state’s new testing system. Therefore next year’s scores will be different, taking away comparative measures in understanding on our students and the way they learn.