Morris News Service
ATLANTA --- When the dismal results from the sixth- and seventh-grade state-mandated social studies tests started rolling in, officials at the Georgia Department of Education were quick to look for culprits, State Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox told the State Board of Education recently.
They first considered that the company that provides the Criterion-Reference Competency Tests had erred in building or scoring the tests. That turned out not to be true, Ms. Cox said. State officials turned their attention to the curriculum that resulted from an effort to slim down bulky state guidelines.
"We thought we put out what were clear standards," Ms. Cox said. "But ... what we were telling the teachers to teach the students and the kind of test item that came up related to that standard, you're back to our problem of the old (curriculum)."
So the state asked a group of teachers to revamp the standards, which gained preliminary approval this month. Now online, the standards are open for public comment before final approval in August.
THE CHALLENGE for those tasked with overhauling the curriculum: Pare it down to a manageable size.
Sixth- and seventh-grade social studies largely deals with government, geography and history of other countries. So some countries would have to go. "We looked at it from every angle, and we tried to narrow the focus so that we could dig down deep and allow students the opportunity to really engage in the content," said Eddie Bennett, the Cobb County middle and high school social studies supervisor and executive director of the Georgia Council for the Social Studies.
"You can't teach everything," he said.
THE NEW CURRICULUM will have a different lead-in. Though the standards will go into effect for the 2008-09 academic year, the CRCTs in spring 2009 won't count, serving as a pilot test, Ms. Cox said.
"Then, in the spring of 2010, we'd be back to a regular administration of sixth- and seventh-grade social studies," she said.
Some, though, would like the curriculum to get an intense look each year.
"If we're going to review student comprehension and mastery every year in a comprehensive manner, then we need to make sure that we're reviewing the curriculum and the delivery of the curriculum as well," said Jeff Hubbard, the president of the Georgia Association of Educators.
