LAKELAND — More than 86 percent of Lanier County Elementary School third-graders successfully achieved grade level or better scores on the recent Reading Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test.

Of the school’s 111 third graders, only 15 failed to meet the minimum score required for promotion to the fourth grade. Two-thirds of those were special education students.

“The scores were much better than we anticipated,” said Ann Felts, school test coordinator. “The practice tests were pretty difficult. Our kids struggled and the results were not very good. We were a little concerned.”

In the end, however, the third graders surprised everyone.

Felts credited the Lanier READS Program with the high passage rate on Georgia’s Reading CRCT. She said the program requires students to read so many minutes every single day. That combined with daily classroom lessons and test familiarity through practice resulted in good scores.

Felts said many of the parents and guardians of those third-graders who did not score at grade level have already been notified by mail of the opportunity to attend summer remediation instruction in the next few days. After completion of such they will be allowed to sit for a retest, which is scheduled for June 16.

Those who do not pass the Reading CRCT the second time around will be retained in the third grade. An appeals process is in place for parents and guardians to object to the retention decision.

Felts is confident many of the students will be promoted to the fourth grade without any problems.

This is the first year the Reading CRCT has been used for retention purposes. Next year, fifth-graders who do not perform at grade level in reading and mathematics on the Georgia CRCT will not be promoted to the sixth grade. By the end of the 2005-06 school year, the same will be true for eighth-graders.

The CRCT is designed to measure how well a student has mastered the skills and knowledge set forth in the Quality Core Curriculum. Georgia law requires that all students in grades first through eighth take the CRCT in the content areas of reading, English/language arts, and mathematics. Students in grades three through eight are also assessed in science and social studies.



To contact reporter Jessica Pope, please call 244-3400, ext. 255.