ATLANTA --- The Georgia Board of Education approved changes Thursday to Georgia's social studies curriculum in hopes of preventing a repeat of last spring when droves of pupils failed state-mandated tests.
State schools Superintendent Kathy Cox attributed the failure of 70-80 percent of sixth- and seventh-graders on the social studies portion of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests this year to the state's curriculum not matching the exams. She threw the scores out and promised to fix the problem.
A committee of educators and experts combed through the curriculum this summer and suggested changes.
The new curriculum narrows what pupils learn in sixth- and seventh-grade and eliminates redundancy in the material.
For example, sixth-graders will focus on Latin America, Canada, Europe and Australia and seventh-graders will learn about Africa and Asia, rather than pupils in both grades learning about the entire list of countries both years, said Bill Cranshaw, the social studies coordinator for the state Department of Education. The Renaissance has been taken out of the curriculum entirely because pupils learn that material in high school, he said.
"We have pared down the curriculum so it doesn't cover as much," Mr. Cranshaw said.
He and his staff will spend the next four months traveling the state to train middle school teachers on the new material.
The curriculum will be taught as a pilot program this year. Pupils will be given the social studies CRCT at the end of the year but only as a way to determine whether the curriculum works. Scores won't be counted until the next year.
This spring's low test scores shocked pupils and angered parents, who said children weren't properly prepared.
Comments
How foolish to inform parents and the students that the test will not count this year. Focus and determination are essential for success and now the Chronicle has laid the foundation for these kids (and parents) to adjust their commitment. The EOCT's were tweaked and improved over a period of time and did not count either, but we never told the students because we wanted their best efforts.
just as it expected, SHOCKED STUDENTS AND ANGY PARENTS...how about sorry students and very sorry parents...it is not society's responsibility to prepare you children to learn, schools are there to teach, it is your job to prepare your children to learn and if need be why not sitting down with YOUR CHILDREN AND MAKE SURE THEY UNDERSTAND WHAT IS BEING TAUGHT!!!!! question to all.....how many students from c t walker, davidson and/or johnson where "SHOCKED" and how many parents were "ANGERED"???? now lets see...very few if any students failed the crct which translates into very few if any ANGERED PARENTS...so that means most if not all passed the crct...hey ANGERED PARENTS why not sit down with your SHOCKED CHILDREN and make sure they are learning so they will pass the crct....i guess that is too much work, so blame society and the school district because you want to be sorry parents.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2012. All Rights Reserved.
