Kennesaw Schools Shine in CRCT

Four of the five Cobb County School District middle schools located in the Kennesaw Patch area exceeded the state average for their sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT).

, , and middle schools all topped the state average on the CRCT, which measures students’ abilities in reading, English/language arts, math, science and social studies.

Palmer Middle just missed joining the other Kennesaw middle schools in bettering the state average in all five content areas for its three grades. The class’ average score in the seventh-grade English/language arts of 92.8 percent meeting or exceeding the standard was only 0.3 percent away from the state average of 93.1 percent.

Kennesaw’s elementary schools also performed well on the CRCT, according to results released by the Georgia Department of Education Wednesday. Students at , , and elementary schools all topped the state average in all five content areas for third, fourth and fifth grades.

Students in third-, fifth- and eighth-grade must meet or exceed the grade requirements on the CRCT in reading to advance according to state law. Fifth- and eighth-grade students also need to meet or exceed expectations on the CRCT in mathematics to move on to the next grade.

Lewis Elementary third graders improved their average scores in all five content categories. The best improvement came in English/language arts with a 4.2 percent jump to 95.4 percent meeting or exceeding the standard. Kennesaw Charter third-grade students had their science scores drop 20.2 percent from 2010 to 69.2 percent meeting or exceeding the standard.

Math scores for Lewis fourth graders jumped 8 percent to 92.3 percent either meeting or exceeding the standard.

Chalker fifth graders boosted their science and math scores significantly. In science, the class’ score increased 9.7 percent to 89.8 percent meeting or exceeding the standard. In math, scores improved 6.4 percent to 95.5 percent.

Sixth graders at Pine Mountain Middle raised their average math score 9.7 percent to 90.8 percent meeting or exceeding the standard. Palmer Middle students in the same class increased their social studies scores 8 percent to 82.2 percent.

Pine Mountain seventh graders also performed well in math. They topped their 2010 average score by 6 percent to 94.2 percent meeting or exceeding the standard.

Eighth graders at Awtrey Middle improved their average math score 9.9 percent to 90 percent. Although Palmer eighth-grade students’ scores dropped in four of the five categories, they were able to improve their social studies score.