Why does Georgia rank so low in terms of education? (Atlanta: home, public school)

[MattCW]

Georgia does its own thing called the CRCT as do most states. The only national "standardized" tests we have ARE the ACT and SAT.

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Georgia does its own thing called the CRCT as do most states. The only national "standardized" tests we have ARE the ACT and SAT.

The CRCT is not considered a nationally norm based test. The ones that ElleKay mentioned - criterion reference (CRT) the CAT and I will add the "Iowa" test or ITBS are national test. The MAP test is as well now. When I was a kid I took CRT, CAT, and Iowa every year. We didn't have a state test in Ohio back then.

[MattCW]

Yes, but we DO NOT HAVE those tests! The ONLY nationally standard tests we do have are the ACT and SAT as I just said.

[ElleKaye]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Yes, but we DO NOT HAVE those tests! The ONLY nationally standard tests we do have are the ACT and SAT as I just said.

Well, according to the Georgia Dept. of Education, apparently we do, and it's called the National Accessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

It is the only measure of student achievement in the United States that allows you to compare the performance of students in your state with the performance of students across the nation or in other states. Not all students or grade levels in the state are tested and the test is not given every year...

Testing and Performance


As for Georgia's results from 2013, the percentage of students in Georgia who performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level was 32 percent. This percentage was not significantly different from that in 2011 (28 percent) and was greater than that in 1998 (25 percent).

State Profiles.net

My point was that while students who take college entrance exams in Georgia are performing below the national average, I thought there had to be some other source for ranking Georgia's schools low that actually involved students at various grade levels. I didn't know the name of the standardized test at the time, but the NAEP is administered nationally. In Georgia, it is administered every two years to 4th, 8th, and 12th graders.

[MattCW]

A test given only once every two years to only 3 sets of students, is hardly conclusive of anything but an even bigger waste of taxpayer money.

[AnsleyPark]

I think in large part because we have state leadership that doesn't really care, despite the lip service.

[arjay57]

I could see the trend from Matt's chart but couldn't tell the details.

How do we compare specifically to other states which test an equal percentage of their students?

If you've got some states cherry picking students for testing, that doesn't give a fair comparison to Georgia, where almost everybody takes the test.

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I could see the trend from Matt's chart but couldn't tell the details.

How do we compare specifically to other states which test an equal percentage of their students?

If you've got some states cherry picking students for testing, that doesn't give a fair comparison to Georgia, where almost everybody takes the test.

On NAEP children are tested according to an equal percentage of students in the state representing each demographic.

So many do feel that NAEP is a fair comparison state by state on a national level.

I forgot that one in the nationally based test response, but will say that personally I see a lot of flaws in regards to NAEP in that it does not provide individual scores for students and does not include a long test like the CAT or CRCT even. Kids are basically asked a small series of questions on different levels and that level is then estimated across the demographic and state. At least that is the gist of what was described to me. It has been performed for many years, since the 60s or 70s I think but I don't see how it can be a reflection of statewide or national academic achievement but I am not a statistics person so who knows....

But just for everyone's information, I will state that the use of poor and minority students as a reason for Georgia to be failing is not very convincing when other states with significant minority and lower income students perform better than GA on NAEP in particular, most notably New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania who were in the top 10 performing states in 2011. The 2013 data will probably be out early next year. It may be now if you want to check their website.

[dblackga]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I could see the trend from Matt's chart but couldn't tell the details.

How do we compare specifically to other states which test an equal percentage of their students?

If you've got some states cherry picking students for testing, that doesn't give a fair comparison to Georgia, where almost everybody takes the test.

See post #9:

"In 2013, Georgia had a 75% participation rate. That means that 3 out of 4 prospective high school graduates that year took the SAT. 3 out of 4!!!! There are only 8 states with higher participation rates. Of the 15 schools with the highest participation rates, Georgia was ranked 11th. Delaware, with a 100% participation rate, also had the LOWEST SAT scores overall."

[Teachase]

I started homeschooling when I moved to Ga. 14 years ago. We had some very severe bullying issues that were simply being ignored. Since then, I've watched the news. The schools say they need books. Yet, when they get the money .. they build a tennis court. Don't get me wrong. I think physical activity is extremely important. However, basic needs should come first. I think it's matter of priorities. To me, it's common sense. However, common sense isn't always so common.