ANCS assesses student learning using a range of instruments, and we do not view the results of one of these instruments alone as the sole measure of the overall effectiveness of the entire school program. Each assessment instrument has inherent limitations and can only provide one type and level of information about a student.
One of the tools ANCS utilizes in evaluating students are standardized tests. The academic performance goals outlined in the school’s charter reflect, like all public schools, the school’s compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act and its provisions for meeting annual performance targets in Reading/Language Arts and Math set by the state each year on the Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) in order to achieve “Adequate Yearly Progress”. Additionally, the performance goals in the charter are measured using other standardized assessments, such as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) and the Georgia Writing Assessment.
In the 2010-11 school year, the elementary campus was recognized as a “Greatest Gain” school by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement based on students’ CRCT performance. The middle campus has named a Title I “Distinguished School” for six consecutive years for students’ performance on the CRCT. Please see below for more information about ANCS student performance on outside measures.
CRCT
The percentages below indicate the percentage of students at each grade level who met or exceeded the standards on the Reading, ELA, and Math CRCTs in 2010 and 2011. The results from the 2012 administration of the CRCT will be posted here when they are made official by the state DOE.
2011 |
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| Grade Level | % of Student Meet/Exceed Reading |
% of Students Meet/Exceed Language Arts |
% of Students Meet/Exceed Math |
| Third | 100 | 95 | 87 |
| Fourth | 100 | 96 | 93 |
| Fifth | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Sixth | 99 | 100 | 70 |
| Seventh | 99 | 99 | 96 |
| Eighth | 100 | 99 | 84 |
| School-wide | 99 | 98 | 88 |
2010 |
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| Grade Level | % of Student Meet/Exceed Reading |
% of Students Meet/Exceed Language Arts |
% of Students Meet/Exceed Math |
| Third | 97 | 95 | 90 |
| Fourth | 100 | 96 | 84 |
| Fifth | 90 | 88 | 76 |
| Sixth | 94 | 99 | 77 |
| Seventh | 96 | 96 | 92 |
| Eighth | 98 | 98 | 81 |
ANCS made Adequate Yearly Progress in 2010.
Georgia Writing Assessment
Students at ANCS take the Georgia Writing Assessment annually. The school’s charter accountability goals require tracking of student performance on the assessment in the fifth and eight grades.
On the 2012 Georgia Writing Assessment, 90% of ANCS fifth graders met or exceeded the standards on the fifth grade assessment and 85% of ANCS eighth graders met or exceeded the standards on the eighth grade assessment.
On the 2011 Georgia Writing Assessment, 73% of ANCS fifth graders met or exceeded the standards on the fifth grade assessment and 94% of ANCS eighth graders met or exceeded the standards on the eighth grade assessment.
Iowa Assessments
Students at ANCS also take the Iowa Assessments (formerly the Iowa Test of Basic Skills) annually in the third, fifth, and eighth grades in the Reading, Language Arts, and Math subtests. These tests are a nationally-administered norm-referenced test, and student performance at ANCS is tracked as a part of the school’s accountability goals and reported in terms of national percentile rank (NPR)
On the 2012 Iowa Assessments:
- ANCS 3rd grade had an overall NPR among the three battery of tests of 87, meaning that our students had higher levels of achievement than 87% of students who took the same test nationally
- ANCS 5th grade had an overall NPR among the three battery of tests of 77, meaning that our students had higher levels of achievement than 77% of students who took the same test nationally
- ANCS 8th grade had an overall NPR among the three battery of tests of 85, meaning that our students had higher levels of achievement than 85% of students who took the same test nationally
Of 8th grade students in the class of 2012 who took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills as 5th grade students in the spring of 2009, the NPR of that group on the 3rd grade battery of tests was 37 and on the 5th grade battery of tests was 72. The change in NPR for this cohort group from 3rd to 8th grade was +48, well surpassing the school’s charter goal.
