Cobb CRCT Scores Posted

by Wendy Parker

The Criterion-Referenced Competency Test school-level scores for the Cobb County School District and Marietta City Schools show a range of results.

The figures were released by the Georgia Department of Education on Tuesday. 

The CRCT, a key statewide measurement for academic performance, is administered to students in the third, fifth and eighth grades. 

Last month, the Georgia Department of Education released state- and districtwide CRCT scores that reflected modest gains from Cobb students. 

Students were tested in April in five academic areas: Reading, English/Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Science. 

Their scores were categorized into four levels of achievement: percentage of students who did not meet baseline standards in that subject, percentage of students who met the standards, percentage of students who exceeded the standards, and percentage of students who met and exceeded the standards. 

While a number of elementary schools in the Cobb and Marietta districts had strong results in Reading and English/Language Arts, others were lagging.

A number of schools had 100 percent of students meeting and exceeding reading standards in third grade, mostly in East Cobb and parts of North and West Cobb. 

On the other hand, a number of schools in South Cobb had more than 15 to 20 percent of third-graders who did not meet those standards. 

Across the board, elementary students at East Side, Tritt, Murdock, Timber Ridge, Garrison Mill and Shallowford Falls in East Cobb, Davis, Nicholson and Keheley in Northeast Cobb, Ford in North Cobb and Still and Due West in West Cobb posted some of the highest CRCT scores in the Cobb district. 

Among those elementary schools with high percentages of students not meeting standards in several areas were Green Acres and Belmont Hills in Smyrna, Sanders and Austell Intermediate in Austell and Clay in Mableton. 

In Marietta schools, results at the elementary level also are wide-ranging. 

At the Marietta Center for Advanced Academics -- a science, technology and math magnet school -- 100 percent of fifth graders either met or exceeded standards in all five subject areas. More than 30 percent of Hickory Hills Elementary students in the same grade did not meet standards in math, science and social studies.

At Marietta Middle School, more than 90 percent of eighth graders met or passed standards in reading and English/language arts. Those figures dropped to 78 percent for social studies, 75 percent for math and 68 percent for science. 

Third, fifth and eighth graders must pass reading standards to advance, and so must math students in the fifth and eighth grades.

To view databases with detailed scores from individual schools, click the Georgia DOE CRCT link, then download the spreadsheet for the desired grade. The DOE also has compiled a CRCT Resource Page that explains the history of the test, how the scores are measured and includes a glossary of terms and other information.