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Schools Using Incentives to Draw Students for Testing: CRCTs Start Today in Bibb

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 April 2006, 09:01 CDT

By Julie Hubbard, The Macon Telegraph, Ga.

Apr. 4--Principals are hoping that chances to win new bikes or gift baskets are enough to lure students to school this week and next.

That's because Bibb County's first- through eighth-graders take the state-mandated Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests starting today through April 13.

Students are required to take the CRCTs each spring to gauge how much of the state's reading and math curriculum and, in older grades, science and social studies, they learned during the year.

If at least 95 percent of a school's students don't show up to take the exams, or if about 60 percent of all students fail, schools are held accountable under No Child Left Behind laws. Schools can be labeled as inferior, and they can be required to offer students free tutoring or the option to transfer. Students in third, fifth and eighth grades are also retained if they don't pass certain parts of the exam.

Hoping for success, principals are giving incentives during the next two weeks to get students to school -- and ready.

"Our students are afforded opportunities to win bikes," said Williams Elementary School principal Steven Jones, who's giving away five donated bicycles. "If they come by 8:10 a.m., they put their name into a drawing."

Getting students to school early on test days ensures that children have time to eat breakfast and are more relaxed, which can lead to more successful test results, he said.

The school met its No Child Left Behind goals, called Adequate Yearly Progress, for four straight years, and it wants to continue doing so, Jones said.

Taylor Elementary School also is giving away a bicycle and gift baskets to encourage its students to take all their CRCT tests.

"One of the things we have to work on for making AYP is participation. You want 95 percent of students participating," Taylor principal Susan Simpson said. "We came up with fun things to do for the children to make it through."

Students have chances to win a bike or gift baskets containing items such as books, ice cream passes, jump ropes and bubbles, Simpson said.

Baheejah Hasan, principal of Burke Elementary School, went one step further to make sure she has a full house starting today.

"We've given out alarm clocks," said Hasan, who wasn't joking. "If they continue to be late, we say here's a new battery."

"Getting them to school is extremely important. We're making sure they eat, have a pencil and have focus in mind."

The CRCTs are the biggest test that elementary and middle school students face, school officials said.

Schools spend months preparing students, helping those at risk of failing with Saturday school test preparation and after-school tutorials.

Some schools had pep rallies recently to get students energized, officials said.

The CRCT test results, as well as testing day attendance and overall school attendance, are indicators of how well a school is performing each year.

"We've been putting the word out" to parents to make sure children are well rested and on time, said Bruce Giroux, Bibb's director of testing assessment and accountability.

"We've been preparing students on the curriculum all year long," he said. "We want to make sure students are there to do their best. The test results help us look at how we're doing as a system so we know where we need to improve."

Last school year, about 130 elementary and middle school students (less then 1 percent) missed the exams, he said.

Appling Middle and Rutland Middle schools both missed Adequate Yearly Progress last time because 95 percent of their students were not present for the exams, he said.

To contact Julie Hubbard, call 744-4331 or e-mail jhubbard@macontel.com [mailto:jhubbard@macontel.com].

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Macon Telegraph, Ga.

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Source: The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Ga.)

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