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Grad tests show 60% pass rate

Posted by
Walter Geiger
in News
Tuesday, July 5. 2011
Comments (30)
Of the 153 Lamar high school students taking the entire Georgia High School Graduation Test this school year, 60.1% passed all sections on the first try. Students have another chance over the summer to pass the test, expected to raise the final numbers.

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#1 disappointed on 07/05/11 at 10:30 AM
That percentage is truly disappointing. It will be interesting to see how well the surrounding counties performed on the graduation tests.
#2 Anonymous on 07/05/11 at 12:21 PM
why should they worry about passing day is all gotta get dat check comming,or da gonna be nba stars fool!!
#3 Anonymous on 07/05/11 at 01:55 PM
With ignorant, racist remarks such as this reflecting on this community, it is no wonder that we cannot attract companies that offer well paying jobs. Thank God, there are people who live here that do not share your views.
#4 John on 07/05/11 at 04:00 PM
National Core Curriculum is code for greater Federalization of education. Increasing the Federal and state controls on education is what makes it difficult for elected school boards, superintendents and teachers to help students achieve the success we expect and they deserve. Education needs to be liberalized, teachers need the power to teach, and administrators need the power to enforce discipline and order, which was nearly always present in school in past decades.
#5 Knowbeforeyouspeak on 07/05/11 at 05:37 PM
to Disappointed: Do you know that the targets we are to reach each year are moving thanks to No Child Left Behind? Do you know that for this year's entering 9th graders - there won't even BE a graduation test because it is phasing out? Crawford 55%, Upson 68%, Pike 75%, and Spalding 63%. Looks like we are right in the mix of average scores. Quit being so dang negative on her all the time.
#6 Pandora on 07/05/11 at 06:53 PM
Dr. Truby and the gang are getting great results (sarcasm) for only spending 16,000.00 per child. We should give him another raise for this world class school system we have here. Maybe we can schedule another concert in his honor at the Fine Arts Center. We could even get the chamber and the bank to sponser it. Oh, I forgot they will only sponser it if they can have alcohol at the event.
#7 Anonymous on 07/05/11 at 08:56 PM
I wonder why Pike is at 75%???? hmmmmmmmmmmm I wonder....lol
#8 Lamar Snarkman on 07/06/11 at 05:06 AM
Pandora, it would be nice if the schools here had the kind of resources to spend $16,000 per student. The actual number, though, is much lower. Lamar spends an average of about $7200 per student, which is far below the state average of about $9,000 per student.

Spending is not the issue, however. The reason more children do not pass the graduation test is that we live in a community that has historically not valued education. Too few people here, for example, read for pleasure, and too many lack the discipline to study math.

I'll bet you would find a high correlation between parents who are educated here and students who pass the graduation test.

That's the dirty little secret of rural Georgia. No conspiracy exists to hold the people down: they hold themselves down through the accumulation of choices they make over the course of their lives. Sure, the NBA or the lottery are both paths to prosperity, but those ways are very, very narrow, friends. Education is a much wider road to financial success.

I'm just laying some truth on y'all.
#9 Darquavious Johnson on 07/06/11 at 06:09 AM
yeh but they speek the truth!!and as far as attracting companies that pay good just take a stroll through ingles sometime,stop at a gas station,walk in freds,listen to they way people talk,watch how they act.its one step from a third world country.would you locate your business here?i dont think so.
#10 anon on 07/06/11 at 06:14 AM
Comparing averages of anything is meaningless. My children both recently graduated from LC and, sadly as 4.1 insinuates in a racist way, the variation of student abilities at LC is a problem with system comparisons.
#11 Anonymous on 07/06/11 at 08:29 AM
"sponser", lol.
#12 garp on 07/06/11 at 08:58 AM
60% is a failing score on most school tests. When only 6 in 10 can pass easy tests like these that are designed for most to pass there is a problem.
#13 Just Sayin' on 07/06/11 at 09:32 AM
Because they cheat...
#14 Anonymous on 07/06/11 at 11:00 AM
Maybe the administration needs to learn how to cheat on the tests like in Atlanta - then our scores will go up
#15 Anonymous on 07/06/11 at 12:53 PM
The numbers would be even worse if they did not cheat and change the test scores. The scores are even lower than this probably, thanks to NCLB.
#16 Anonymous on 07/06/11 at 07:03 PM
Wow. He needs a pay decrease.
#17 silent observer on 07/07/11 at 04:25 AM
it's not turby it's the school board. those old timers that have sat on the board for years are the problem with the school. they think the system revolves around them so they try to hold on to absolute power to corrupt the schools absolutely
#18 pandora on 07/07/11 at 07:26 AM
I beg to differ, the amount you quoted is way too low. If you take all the money spent by the school system, whether it be federal, state or local,including payments on the football field , fine arts center, supplies, board retreats and parties in Atlanta and Savanah, sending teachers to seminars and conferences , school lunches etc. and divide it by each student per year , the price per student is actually more than the 16000.00, per year per student. My point is that we spend too much money and get poor results. You will never get good results throwing money at the problem. The answer is to privatise the schools and get rid of the teacher unons and all the waste in the systems .
#19 Anonymous on 07/07/11 at 09:29 AM
To knowbeforeyouspeak...As for surrounding counties, isn't Monroe one? I guess you didn't list them because they scored 81.7% overall and you only listed the ones that were close to Lamar's scores.
#20 Knowbeforeyouspeak on 07/07/11 at 10:17 AM
Well geographically, Crawford doesn't touch Lamar, so I guess I shouldn't have listed them and included Butts. I really don't care what other schools score, I was just commenting to the person "disappointed" as to some of the scores.
#21 Anonymous on 07/08/11 at 02:56 PM
very true though.
#22 Interesting on 07/09/11 at 12:43 AM
"The Office of Student Achievement concluded that in 2009 there was a total of 74 elementary and middle schools all over Georgia -- out of about 1,700 -- that had "severe" problems with possible cheating by teachers and principals, changing wrong answers to correct ones after the tests were administered, to make their schools look good.

Most of those 74 schools, 43 of them, were in the Atlanta school district.

The next worst district was Dougherty County, with 8 schools on the list, and DeKalb County with 6.

The rest of the 74 schools were scattered across ten other school districts:

Fulton County 3 schools
Clayton County 2 schools
BIBB County 2 schools
SPALDING County 2 schools
Muscogee County 2 schools
Richmond County 2 schools
Carroll County 1 school
Gainesville 1 school
Quitman County 1 school
GA Department of Juvenile Justice 1 school"
#23 CRCT CHEATING STATS 2009/2010 on 07/09/11 at 01:22 AM
Office of Student Achievement
(School not listed had stats of 0%)

2009 Stats
School Name % of Classes Flagged

LAMAR CO ELE 1.2%
LAMAR CO PRIM 3.0%

PIKE COUNTY ELE 0.9%
PIKE COUNTY MID 0.9%

SPALD CARVER ROAD M 0.9%
SPALD FUTRAL ROAD E 1.3%
SPALDING JORDAN HILL R 1.5%
SPALDING BEAVERBROOK E 1.6%
SPALDING ORRS ELEMENTA 2.5%
SPALDING KENNEDY ROAD 2.7%
SPALDING TAYLOR STREET 3.1%
SPALDING COWAN ROAD EL 3.4%
SPALDING CRESCENT ROAD 3.5%
SPALDING ANNE STREET E 6.1%
SPALDING MORELAND ROAD 7.2%
SPALDING ATKINSON ELEM 28.6%
SPALDING MOORE ELEMENT 31.7%

2010 STATS

SchoolName Total Classes - Total Classes Flagged - Percent Flagged
LAMAR CO ELE 81 - 5 - 6.2%
LAMAR CO MIDD 66 - 2 - 3.0%

PIKE COUNTY E 105 - 10 - 9.5%

SPALD ANNE STREET E 60 -2- 3.3%
SPALD ATKINSON ELEM 69 - 1 - 1.4%
SPALD COWAN ROAD EL 84 - 3 - 3.6%
SPALD COWAN ROAD MI 114 - 1 - 0.9%
SPALD JACKSON ROAD 66 - 4 - 6.1%
SPALD KENNEDY ROAD 105 - 2 - 1.9%
SPALD MOORE ELEMENT 51 - 1 -2.0%
SPALD REHOBOTH ROAD 111 - 1 0.9%
#24 M. Kurkierewicz on 07/09/11 at 08:42 AM
This is a problem that exist in every state. Philadelphia is at an emergency level with the state taking over schools. Due to budget cuts we have lost 30% of teachers and aids and special education programs. This in a city that the average for autistic children is 1 in 96. Well above the national average. With the new methods of teaching madated by the federal government testing scores has risen.
But the curious thing is that a Valdectorian at a local high school received a 600 on SAT score. There are problems with the educational system everywhere.
#25 Anonymous on 07/11/11 at 09:42 PM
Hey I say this bumper sticker in atlanta the other day:
" My kid attends Atlanta Public Schools and my principal and teacher makes parole in 2016."
#26 Anonymous on 07/13/11 at 03:01 PM
This means the jail population will increase by 40%.
#27 Sheila Tolley on 07/13/11 at 06:45 PM
"Of the 153 Lamar high school students taking the entire Georgia High School Graduation Test this school year, 60.1% passed all sections on the first try."

I cannot for the life of me understand why this is so complicated and requires so much discussion nowadays.

In a class of 300, we can expect 180 to fail this year, right?

I guess that depends on the size of the erasers still available when Atlanta gets through being investigated.

I never thought I would see schools needing metal detectors for children and disciplinarians to prevent teachers from cheating.

Sad, sad world we are living in folks.
#28 No-Name on 07/14/11 at 04:24 AM
Ummmmm....Sheila, You failed the Math portion of this test. 60% passing would be 180 in your class of 300. You would expect 120 to fail. lol
#29 Sheila Tolley on 07/14/11 at 10:10 AM
Thank you, Sweetcakes...........it is my stupidity alone............teachers did not cheat in my day.
#30 Sheila Tolley on 07/14/11 at 10:19 AM
Will someone with logic please explain why so many children fail? I am having a real hard time wrapping my head around this "here" problem.

If you will, save your smart ass comments until I sort this out in my mind.

This "no child left behind" BULLS**t must be a contributing factor. If the children that are not up to par had been left behind when they should have been....maybe they could have been successful in later years.
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