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Georgia: Summer school wraps up, students await scores on second round of state testing

By: Beverly Carroll
(Contact)

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Jared Hosmer

Summer school in North Georgia is all but over and now the waiting begins for students, teachers and parents who will learn in about two weeks the results of retesting on math and reading exams.

Today is the last day for students in grades three, five and eight to retake the standardized math and reading tests that help determine whether they pass to the next grades.

“Today is a makeup day for the whole county. Then we box (the tests) up and send them off. From that time it’s usually about two weeks until the state e-mails us the results,” said Ringgold Elementary School principal cq Jan Blazejewski. “Because (students and parents) are so anxious, we will sit down and start making calls as soon as we hear something.”

The anxiety stems from how the tests affect promotions. Students who fail during the school year must take the tests again. Passing guarantees promotion. If a child fails, a team of teachers, administrators and others evaluates the whole record to decide whether to retain or promote the student.

To prepare for retesting, North Georgia schools offered three weeks of intensive tutoring in summer school.

More students in the region enrolled in summer school this year than last, partly because more students failed math competency tests. Statewide, 20 percent to 30 percent failed, and local officials said local performance matched the state rate.

State and local educators attributed the dip to the new math tests administered in the eighth grade. The tests align with the state’s new curriculum, which has rolled out in stages over the last few years.

“We had a little dip in math scores,” said Kevin Muskett, Summerville Middle School principal. “Math has been a concern. But at a conference I attended in Rome, most everybody had experienced the same thing and everybody attributed it to the change.”

State Education Superintendent Kathy Cox has said it’s common for test scores to drop after new curricula or tests are introduced.

The math curriculum rollout started in 2005 and affected several grades a year through eighth grade. The new high school math curriculum is scheduled to start its rollout this fall.

“Our fifth-graders had no foundation coming into the curriculum (in the 2007-08 school year),” said Nancy Lance, Walker County director of curriculum.

“It had not been taught in grades one through four when they were in those grades. But our grades one and two were good, as we expected. We started the new curriculum in K-2 in (2006-07), so they are getting it from the start. So we expect the same trend as they move up.”

More Dade County students failed the state tests in 2007-08, the first year of the new tests, Dade Elementary principal Cherie Swader said.

“Last year was the first year for our second-graders and we saw a dip,” Ms. Swader said. “But then we saw them come up this year.”

Most local school administrators said that higher summer enrollment pushed their operating costs higher than expected.

Most programs offered small classes, which meant some had to hire more teachers. But most systems prepared by budgeting money for staff and retesting, administrators said.

“We had more students than last year but we were prepared for what came,” said Jared Hosmer, director of elementary curriculum and federal programs for Chattooga County Schools.

The Georgia Board of Education approved a request from Ms. Cox for $1.4 million to help schools offset the additional costs of summer enrollment.

Whitfield County Schools, which had nearly 500 students enrolled in summer school, covered its own expenses, spokesman Eric Beavers said.

“We are documenting any costs associated with ... retesting efforts as Superintendent Cox suggested and will apply for a reimbursement if that option becomes available,” Mr. Beavers said in an e-mail interview last week.

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