Forsyth County Schools Excel on CRCT Scores

This year’s CRCT scores are in for Forsyth County Schools, and the district ranked first among its peers in the metro Atlanta area, according to the AJC.

Forsyth County earned the top scores in 21 out of 30 tested subjects, the AJC reported.

And in a press release put out by Forsyth County Schools, the district said it saw increases from last year in the number of students who exceeded scores.

“After reviewing the district’s CRCT scores by grade level, and calculating how our district performed both with test scores and the percentage of students exceeding standards, I could not be any more pleased with our success,” Forsyth County Schools Superintendent Buster Evans said in the press release. 

CRCT stands for Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, which measure how well students in grades 3 through 8 acquire skills and knowledge in key subject areas, such as reading, math and social studies. The assessments are used to determine individual student strengths and weaknesses, as well as the overall quality of education in Georgia.  

“In a number of grade-level areas, Forsyth County Schools ranks – if not first in the state – then among the top scores for all 180 districts,” Evans said. “This is the type of performance that our teachers and administrators strive to achieve. Our personnel, students, and parents should be ecstatic once again at these levels of excellence.  

“While we can always find areas for improvement, these scores reflect the highest level of professional effort given during an era where we have had to make continued fiscal efficiency decisions that frankly, we would prefer not to be making,” Evans said.

The chart below compares the range of the percentage of students in grades 3-8 who scored in the "Meets and Exceeds" category:

Subject

Forsyth County Range of M&E

Georgia’s State Range of M&E

Reading

98-99%

90-96%

ELA

98-99%

91-95%

Math

94-99%

77-91%

Science

92-97%

73-85%

Social Studies

92-96%

73-81%

“When comparing FCS to similarly-sized systems across the state and metro area, Forsyth County’s “Meets and Exceeds” percentages are well above the others,” said Chief Accountability Officer Cindy Salloum. 

“This year, Cherokee County and Henry County come within a couple of points in some grades in Reading and English Language Arts; however, FCS leads all similarly-sized counties by a healthy margin in Math, Science, and Social Studies,” Salloum continued. “While FCS battles with Fayette for top rankings across the state in a few areas, they generally have half the number of students that Forsyth County has.” 

In addition to the high percentages of students who “Met and Exceeded” areas of the CRCT subject tests, students in Forsyth County also did well in the “% Exceeds” range (students scoring 850 and above). In every subject, FCS students increased in the number of “exceeds scores” from last year:

• In Reading, all grades except grade five increased.
• In English Language Arts, grades 3, 5, 6, and 7 saw increases.
• In Math, grades 3, 6, and 7 saw increases.
• In Science, grades 6 and 7 saw increases while grades 3, 4, and 8 maintained the same number of exceeds as last year.
• In Social Studies, grades 4, 6, and 8 saw increases while grades 3 and 7 maintained the same number of exceeds as last year.