70% to 80% of students fail Georgia’s Social Studies CRCT Test. As a result the tests and scores are being scrapped and the students will have to retake the exam.

I live in Georgia. I grew up in Georgia. I got me some learning on in Georgia. I find it unacceptable for that many students to fail the test. I find it unacceptable that they are throwing out the test scores because it just doesn’t seem right for that many to fail. Something is wrong here. Either the tests do not reflect the curriculum, the teachers are not teaching the curriculum, or the students are just that stupid. My money is on all three. The tests seemed to always be just beyond the base curriculum, which is acceptable to test the extent of the students knowledge and skills. The teachers can only teach what they could get to in the amount of time they had, limited further by dealing with the students. And based on one of my universal rule that everyone is stupid, students are stupid.

“But my kid had all A’s and B’s in Social Studies and still failed”. How many teachers have a mandate that says the students must have a certain grade or higher? I never remember middle school being terribly difficult. Sure you could classify my as one of the smart kids in school. But even when I did poorly there was always a way to make that poor test score up. And I could easily believe it has gotten even easier with even more extra credit being given out. I do not want to go off on a tirade on what is wrong with our educational system so I will stop where this seems to be heading and move on to other questions I have concerning the CRCT.

First, have they investigated the difference between the test and the curriculum that is supposed to be taught?
Second, have they investigated the difference between the curriculum that is supposed to be taught and the one that actually is?
It seems premature to just throw out the entire test with out answering either of those questions with yes.

Third, why are the schools not getting the test results? I would think the schools, if given the test results, could pinpoint exactly what problems the students had, which would then help to answer questions one and two. Supposedly they have gotten some feed back from a few teachers, which is good. However this is only part of the investigation. You must also have a neutral party compare the state curriculum with the test and not simply rely on the teachers. Of course the teachers are going to say the test is not testing what they taught, but you must verify that they are teaching what they were expected to. The southern states are NOT a separate country no matter how many of use think they should be since the civil war should never have happened based on the U.S.’s own declaration of independence (although it said nothing of separating peaceably and no provisions for succeeding from the union were really provided for in the constitution, although if I am mistaken on that last part by all means feel free to correct me, I did after all go to public schools in Georgia).

Fourth, why was this problem brought to light a week before most state schools go on summer break? This should have been seen and addressed well before now. I know I would hate it if I had to take another standardized test just before, or worse yet just after, summer break starts.

Fifth, why do both the curriculum and the tests have to be changed to in order to properly assess the students knowledge and skills? It would seem that only one is at fault and only one must be adjust accordingly. Although I would not fault them for scrapping the whole curriculum and tests and starting over from scratch assuming that is the new curriculum and test are at the very least on par with the level and amount of knowledge and skill as required by its predecessor. Otherwise they will just set education back even further.

Personally I have no problem simply failing all of the students and holding them all back another year. I personally fear that generation eventually being the ruling generation.