CRCT RESULTS• 5th grade reading (percentage of students scoring at or above grade level):State: 91 percentCatoosa: 92.4 percentChickamauga: 100 percentDade: 89.3 percentDalton: 90.2 percentWalker: 94.4 percentWhitfield: 91.4 percent• 5th grade math (percentage of students scoring at or above grade level):State: 87 percentCatoosa: 85.7 percentChickamauga: 98 percentDade: 84.1 percentDalton: 89 percentWalker: 90.2 percentWhitfield: 78.5 percentSource: Georgia Department of Education
About half of Northwest Georgia public school systems met or exceeded state standardized test score averages, while the other half struggled to keep up, CRCT data show.
"Catoosa County Public Schools has typically met or exceeded state scores on most content-area tests on the CRCT," said Superintendent Denia Reese, noting that Catoosa met or exceeded the state in 28 of 30 content areas this year.
"We use benchmark assessments throughout the school year to evaluate mastery of the standards. If remediation is necessary, it is conducted during the year so students are prepared for the state-mandated test."
After releasing statewide results earlier this month, Georgia education officials released each district's 2011 test scores from the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test this week. The CRCT measures students' progress in core subjects like math and reading, and is one of the main factors in determining whether school districts meet benchmarks set out under the No Child Left Behind Act.
In Chickamauga City Schools, 100 percent of fifth- and eighth-graders met or exceeded state standards. Ninety-eight percent of eighth-graders did the same in both Walker and Catoosa counties.
Dade County Schools, which fell below state averages in many content areas, struggled, especially in math. About 57 percent of eighth-graders scored at or above grade level, and 73 percent of third-graders did also.
Patty Priest, who retired this summer as Dade's superintendent, said Dade has not done well in math for years.
"We struggled before the new curriculum came in place, and then when that happened, it even made it more difficult," she said.
Priest teachers in the district had been completing additional staff development, and that it seemed to have made a difference in subgroups like special education.
School-level test results will be available no later than July 6, officials from the Georgia Department of Education said.