Results for school-level Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests lead school officials to believe most Gainesville city and Hall County schools will meet federal accountability requirements and achieve Adequate Yearly Progress this year.

"We have to go through the results school by school before we do any kind of summary data, but we generally did well," said Eloise Barron, assistant superintendent for Hall County schools. "Most likely every school will make AYP, which is a good contrast compared to two years ago when about eight did not."

The state’s standardized CRCT is one of the yardsticks the federal government uses to measure AYP to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act. The CRCT is a curriculum-based test given to students in first through eighth grades in reading, English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies. The state’s high school graduation test is used to determine whether high schools meet AYP.

Rigor and conceptual teaching have made all the difference, Barron said.

"We balanced the literacy framework with speaking, listening, reading and writing in elementary schools, followed the state’s framework for math in middle schools and focused on rigor in all of our high school work — not just AP, IB or advanced classes," she said.

"We want to make sure we’re addressing the needs of each child and pushing them with rigor."

For Gainesville city schools, all but Gainesville Middle School passed AYP during the test given in April.

"We’re very encouraged about AYP, and the summer retakes will determine the outcome of Gainesville Middle," said Merrianne Dyer, superintendent of Gainesville schools. "We’re asking for three alternate assessment scores for portfolios given to severe and profoundly handicapped students to be rescored."

Gainesville schools improved in math across the board but "still has work to do" with social studies and students with disabilities, she said.

"The math improvement was expected in that this the second year the CRCT was based on Georgia Performance Standards," she said. The performance standards provide clear expectations for instruction, assessment and student work. They define the level of work that demonstrates achievement of the standards, enabling a teacher to know "how good is good enough."

"It’s not subject areas but groups that we’re targeting to improve now," Dyer said. "Students with disabilities continue to challenge us, and we’re finding ways to connect the curriculum to those students in more meaningful ways."

A large part of the improvement came from summer school sessions, she said.

"We really went against the grain this year and had summer school while others were trying to save costs," Dyer said, explaining that state funds were put aside to teach some students an extra 20 days. "Early on, we decided we needed to have it to give students more time and individual instruction, and that was critical for us."

About 35 students from North Georgia College & State University and Brenau University helped to teach the summer school sessions.

"Because we were the only district to do it, we got all the help," she said. "Our elementary students literally had one-on-one help, and the results after the summer reflected that."

Hall County schools also improved in math, especially those that implemented the Singapore math model, which teaches students how to use model drawing while solving word problems.

"It looks like we had the most gain in math this year, but we’ll have to drill down and make sure that’s true. Our Iowa Test of Basic Skills scores showed us we moved up amazingly, partially to the Singapore math but also the idea of rigor," Barron said. "Now we need to start planning for next year as the annual measurable objectives continue to go up. We can’t rest where we are; we’ve got to push the bar higher."

Next year’s strategic plan to improve Gainesville schools is to pinpoint individuals specifically, Dyer said.

"Instead of looking at the grades generally, we’re looking strategically at who did not pass what area," she said. "We need to look even more than we ever have at who are those not getting it and start off on day one with individual learning to focus in on those skills."