Line on Jake:
6.1 innings pitched, 9 hits allowed, 4 runs all earned, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, and 1 home run allowed. ERA is now 2.12.
Season totals:
34 innings pitched, 30 hits, 10 runs, 8 earned runs, 8 walks, 19 strikeouts ERA 2.12
Friday, May 4, 2012
Westbrook falls to Pirates
Line on Jake:
6.1 innings pitched, 9 hits allowed, 4 runs all earned, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, and 1 home run allowed. ERA is now 2.12.
Season totals:
34 innings pitched, 30 hits, 10 runs, 8 earned runs, 8 walks, 19 strikeouts ERA 2.12
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Big signing day at Madison County
 |
| MCHS Athletic Director Randal Owens gives UGA Signee Sam LaZear a softball award at today's signing |
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
CRCT testing, does it really benefit anyone?
Column published in last week's issue of the Madison County Journal. To subscribe to the Journal visit www.mainstreetnews.com
By Dallas Bordon
dallasb32@yahoo.com
What would you do if you knew you
couldn’t fail? Ask any student that faces taking the CRCT (Criterion-Referenced
Competency Test) and they would probably answer you by saying, “We won’t worry
all year about passing the CRCT.”
Does the CRCT test help students, teachers or anyone? If you
go online and search for information about CRCT you’ll also pull up its
disadvantages for both students and teachers alike.
If you ask what is the CRCT? The CRCT is a standardized test given to students in Georgia to test individual student performance, school systems’ teaching of Georgia Performance Standards, and the general state of education in Georgia. It is a multiple choice test taken by grades 1-8 that covers English/language arts, math, social studies and science. Third grade students must pass reading to advance to the fourth grade while students in grades 5 and 8 must pass reading and math to be promoted. A retake exam is given in the summer for those who fail but a second time failure will result in a parent/staff conference to determine if the child is to be retained or promoted.
I’m all for standardized testing to check the student’s level of learning. But when it has such an impact that will determine if someone is promoted despite what they accomplish during the year, it’s a waste of time. For teachers it’s causing them to use class time to “teach the test” instead of allowing them the freedom of a flexible curriculum. The pressure factor for the teachers comes into play knowing they must maintain job security and “teach the test” all in order to make sure the institutions meet the mark of AYP (Annual Yearly Progress). If the state of Georgia is so concerned about the kids, why do they turn classrooms and schools into places that getting students to fill in the correct bubble on a test outweighs the main concept of making sure he or she understands or has actually learned anything during the year? As one teacher in Georgia stated in a blog, her greatest complaint of the CRCT is the amount of pressure it puts on the school staff, parents and students. Districts have become so data driven that the test is now the “be all” and end indicator of student/teacher/and district performance. If the student doesn’t do well on the test the teacher may be found first on the list of job cuts, the principal may be reprimanded or they may lose school funds.
It’s nerve racking for all involved. For the ones actually taking the test, the students get to use their spring break worrying over the CRCT that they face when returning to school. While some students handle the pressure well, some do not. There have been students that lose sleep because of the stress of the CRCT, they cry and some schools throughout Georgia have reported students throwing up in the mornings and some that hyperventilate due to the demand “to pass or be retained.” According to Shelley Gray, a contributor to ehow.com, many young children suffer from nervousness and stress during such a test, causing them to forget information they have previously learned.
If the state of Georgia feels the need to fulfill the “No Child Left Behind” requirements by inserting types of test such as the CRCT, then that’s all understandable but when the main requirement is pass or get left behind, it’s missing the mark. Give standardize testing but don’t punish a child for having one bad day of testing that completely wipes out the accomplishments of making “A’s and B’s” during the year. Not all children learn in the same way so they shouldn’t be assessed in the same way.
Morton Mcinvale summed it all up in his report on Helium.com; there is a place and a time for standardized testing. We all need evaluation in order to assist us in processing. But when the evaluation becomes more important than whom and what is being evaluated — the doctor more important than the patient — the time has come to stop it. Life is more than a multiple choice test. How can a standardize test measure creativity? How can multiple choice questions measure individuality?
Dallas Bordon is a regular contributor to The Madison County Journal.
If you ask what is the CRCT? The CRCT is a standardized test given to students in Georgia to test individual student performance, school systems’ teaching of Georgia Performance Standards, and the general state of education in Georgia. It is a multiple choice test taken by grades 1-8 that covers English/language arts, math, social studies and science. Third grade students must pass reading to advance to the fourth grade while students in grades 5 and 8 must pass reading and math to be promoted. A retake exam is given in the summer for those who fail but a second time failure will result in a parent/staff conference to determine if the child is to be retained or promoted.
I’m all for standardized testing to check the student’s level of learning. But when it has such an impact that will determine if someone is promoted despite what they accomplish during the year, it’s a waste of time. For teachers it’s causing them to use class time to “teach the test” instead of allowing them the freedom of a flexible curriculum. The pressure factor for the teachers comes into play knowing they must maintain job security and “teach the test” all in order to make sure the institutions meet the mark of AYP (Annual Yearly Progress). If the state of Georgia is so concerned about the kids, why do they turn classrooms and schools into places that getting students to fill in the correct bubble on a test outweighs the main concept of making sure he or she understands or has actually learned anything during the year? As one teacher in Georgia stated in a blog, her greatest complaint of the CRCT is the amount of pressure it puts on the school staff, parents and students. Districts have become so data driven that the test is now the “be all” and end indicator of student/teacher/and district performance. If the student doesn’t do well on the test the teacher may be found first on the list of job cuts, the principal may be reprimanded or they may lose school funds.
It’s nerve racking for all involved. For the ones actually taking the test, the students get to use their spring break worrying over the CRCT that they face when returning to school. While some students handle the pressure well, some do not. There have been students that lose sleep because of the stress of the CRCT, they cry and some schools throughout Georgia have reported students throwing up in the mornings and some that hyperventilate due to the demand “to pass or be retained.” According to Shelley Gray, a contributor to ehow.com, many young children suffer from nervousness and stress during such a test, causing them to forget information they have previously learned.
If the state of Georgia feels the need to fulfill the “No Child Left Behind” requirements by inserting types of test such as the CRCT, then that’s all understandable but when the main requirement is pass or get left behind, it’s missing the mark. Give standardize testing but don’t punish a child for having one bad day of testing that completely wipes out the accomplishments of making “A’s and B’s” during the year. Not all children learn in the same way so they shouldn’t be assessed in the same way.
Morton Mcinvale summed it all up in his report on Helium.com; there is a place and a time for standardized testing. We all need evaluation in order to assist us in processing. But when the evaluation becomes more important than whom and what is being evaluated — the doctor more important than the patient — the time has come to stop it. Life is more than a multiple choice test. How can a standardize test measure creativity? How can multiple choice questions measure individuality?
Dallas Bordon is a regular contributor to The Madison County Journal.
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