4 thoughts on “Georgia’s CRCT Revisited”

1. My child ask me does my grades even count to help me pass? Well she had 4 B's

   and 2 C's average for year. She's in 5th grade took the CRCT and missed it by 10 points and now they want to send her to summer school. Why don't they look at the average of the grades for the year and how many points they are away and then make a call about sending them to summer school . Now I have her asking me questions about why do I have to do good all year long they don't care about my grades so why so I.

   She was so upset and crying that now she don't even want to go back to school, Because she said that she tried her very best and that she done good all year and now for 10 points of the CRCT they want me to go to summer school. Theres something wrong here. This is not right.

2. my 5th grade daughter is in summer school and i can not believe some of the stupid stuff she has for homework, this crap is hard for educated parents to understand. she struggles in reading comprehension and guess what alot of her math homework is? word problems, that intentionally try to trick you. i had two fifth grade math teachers tell me they had a hard time with some of the problems on the test and they knew alot of kids would not get them right.

3. this was in our local newspaper,letter to the editor. its long but worth reading.

   As far as the CRCT test are concerned, parents and every hard working taxpayer should have concerns about what this standardized testing is costing us. Weeks prior to the test, each school is offering after school CRCT tutorial classes for struggling students which means teachers being paid, higher school utilities, bus transportation is provided, so you have bus drivers being paid and bus operating cost (fuel). Once the test are taken, a high number of 3rd, 5th and 8th graders fail the test and must attend summer school if they want to proceed to the next grade, again this is costing tax payers: teacher supplemental salaries, higher school utilities, bus drivers and fuel cost. And that’s not all, a particular school may be deemed as not meeting standards, so the students at that lower performing school will have a choice, if they want to attend a higher scoring school outside their district they are allowed to do so. Now we have special bus routes to take these students to schools outside their district. I pay a lot of money to live in the area I live in and pay higher taxes so my children can go to a good school, so what is school districting for? A school bus will consume 50 to 75 gallons of fuel in a week and there will probably be 30 or more Griffin-Spalding buses running summer school routes this summer, how much is that costing us taxpayers in fuel statewide? Now consider this, summer school will be full of A,B and C students including honor roll students what failed this ridiculous test. What about the students making D’s and F’s throughout the year but passed the CRCT? They won’t have to attend summer school, they will pass to the next grade. Where is the fairness in any of this? Get it back to the way it used to be, “make D’s and F’s and you are retained”. The members of the Georgia Board of Education say they expected high failure rates because they set the standards higher. Why is a group of highly educated teachers and school board officials putting together this ridiculous test for our kids? I have had two math teachers to tell me they had trouble figuring out some of the problems on the math part of the test and these are just the two I know, I’m sure there are others, So how are our kids supposed to figure it out, especially when they are stressed out about taking the test anyway. Today kids are being taught a bunch of nonsense they will never use in everyday life, teachers are being forced to cram the kids full of this information and most of it will be forgotten in a short period of time. I have seen third grade spelling and vocabulary words that I have never needed to use in my first 40 years and don’t suspect I will in my next 40. The math really is something now days and other than simple adding, subtracting, multiplication and division, where is the rest of it used in everyday life? I guess its good for the kids that do get it and do well, but what about the ones that struggle? They will always be behind and are being made to feel different. I guess Kathy Cox and other State Board of Education members must think all of us going to school before the CRCT standards were set, are a bunch of dumb hicks. In 2006 standards were raised from 2005 and 75,000 Georgia students ended up in summer school and this year they raised standards again and about half of our kids failed it. To hear all the comments coming from the capital they won’t say there is a problem with their standards, they are blaming the schools, teachers and kids for the high failure rate. Teachers and other school officials are beginning to speak out more and more against this standardized testing. Our teachers really need to be appreciated and commended for the junk they have to put up with now days, many teachers will say it is no longer enjoyable being a teacher because of all the things required of them now. Now for someone to say they are not doing their job because of low scores is ludicrous. The kids think they are doing good in school and then next thing they know is they failed and have to go to summer school, some reward for doing good all year long, huh, And it seems our kids are being discriminated against for not passing this test. One of our own Griffin elementary schools had a block party with several out side activities, refreshments and winning prizes for all the students who passed the CRCT test, what happened to the ones that failed it? They had to stay in the library and watch a movie. Now I know there are some of you that will say that I don’t think education is important, I do think it is very important but not the way it is being done today, putting more emphasis on this one test than anything else they do good or bad. And again, what is it costing us?

   Sincerely,

   Mitchell Brown

4. hi my name is miah and im in 6th grade i understand what you guys are talking about because i have to go through all this too

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