Henry Daily Herald

More than half of those in Henry County Schools who retested on Georgia’s statewide spring assessment failed to meet the state’s math standards.

School officials recently released the school district’s results on the state’s Spring 2012 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT). Less than 45 percent of the 958 test-takers — primarily third-, fifth-, and eighth-graders — met or exceeded state standards in the area of math. Less than a percent, or fewer than nine students, exceeded math standards on the CRCT retest.

The second round of testing turned up slightly better results for students in reading. Students passed the reading portion of the CRCT retest at 53 percent, according to district data.

Still, fewer than a handful of the 326 students who took the reading portion of the exam for the second time exceeded standards, after going through remediation this past spring.

“The results of the retests, while not as big of a gain in the meets and exceeds area as we would like, will give us critical information needed to pinpoint students still struggling in certain areas,” said J.D. Hardin, communications specialist for Henry County Schools.

“Teachers will be able to better assist these students during instructional focus periods and remediation periods with additional resources in order to bring them up to the standard average,” he said.

Third-, fifth-, and eighth-graders are typically retested on the math or reading portions of the CRCT, following remediation. The annual spring exam is used as a tool to help educators determine whether students in those grades understand the content enough to advance to the next grade level.

“As we move towards the next school year, it is important to keep in mind that next year’s CRCT will be measuring a different set of standards,” added Hardin. “Since the state is transitioning to the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards [curiculum] for reading, language arts and math, our teachers will be implementing and teaching a different, although similar, curriculum. The areas of concern for the students who did not pass the current CRCT retest will still be addressed while working with the new curriculum.”