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Fayette students excel on standardized tests

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Just two weeks after finding out local students posted the highest scores statewide on the SAT, Fayette County school officials celebrated the news that local scores on the first-ever End of Course exams were the highest in Georgia as well.

The state Department of Education released results of the End of Course tests administered to high school students in eight key subjects: 9th grade literature, biology, physical science, economics, American literature, geometry, history and algebra.

The exams were graded on a 100 point scale, with 70 passing. A passing grade was required to pass the courses.

Fayette students tested best on the American literature exam, with a systemwide average passing grade of 90. They had the most difficulty in economics, with a systemwide average grade of 76.

But that was still better than the systemwide averages at some school districts around metro Atlanta, where students barely passed the economics exam — if at all. For example, the average grade in Clayton County was 62 —Êeight points below the passing grade.

SAT results released in August showed Fayette seniors upped the county average by 16 points over 2003, to 1077. Starr’s Mill High tied for fifth highest scores statewide after posting a 34 point increase, to 1117. McIntosh High was 9th statewide with a score of 1107. Fayette High students saw a 21 point increase, to 1051, and Sandy Creek High posted a nine point gain, to 1034.

All of the individual Fayette high schools scored well above the state and national averages.

Lynn Wentzel, curriculum director for Fayette Schools, said administrators were proud of the results on both the SAT and End of Course exams.

“We felt confident that our students would do well,” she said. “We’re very fortunate.”

This year’s testing season is just getting started, Wentzel said.

The Iowa Test of Basic Skills was administered to 3rd, 5th and 8th graders last week, she said. This week, 2nd graders in the county are taking the Cognitive Ability Test.

High school juniors are gearing up for their first stab at the Georgia High School Graduation Test in a couple of weeks, and the fall SAT exams will be given in October.

Students face another round in the spring when it comes time to take the Criterion Reference Tests, on which Adequate Yearly Progress is determined each year.

Wentzel defended the seemingly unending battery of tests.

“The different kinds of tests measure different things so we can get a lot of information out of different student reports,” Wentzel said. “We can spot trends and weaknesses in certain skills, and look at students in individual terms and as a group as well.”

Plus, said Wentzel, such exams are a measuring tool for school accountability.

The leap in SAT performance by Fayette students is credited to an increased awareness of the importance of the test, an effort to have all students test the PSAT and encouragement that students take SAT-prep courses before their junior years.

More Fayette students are also taking Advanced Placement courses than ever before.

State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox is pushing the same Fayette model to raise SAT scores statewide.

Fayette Superintendent John DeCotis was grateful for the extra work and the higher scores that were a clear result.

“Our schools have been addressing the SAT needs,” he said. “There are always going to be fluctuations, but our scores have been going up for several years now and we’re fortunate.”