CRCT

The result of looping on the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) in an urban middle school

The result of looping on the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) in an urban middle school

Introduction

The elementary classroom structure with relevance to student achievement is just as unresolved today as it was decades ago. Diverse structured arrangements are often debated and discussed. These discussions involve differing opinions from the individual school-level teachers, administrators, and parents to the district-wide and state-level curriculum personnel. Every stakeholder involved in these deliberations has a personal view regarding the best type of organization for instruction in core subject areas at the elementary level (Ackerlund, 1959; Canady & Rettig, 2008; Catledge-Howard, Ward, & Dilworth, 2003; Lamme, 1976; Livingston, 1961; McGrath & Rust, 2002).

With the 2007 reauthorization of the original 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), a paramount level of instruction is needed to improve the academic achievement of every student. The demands are intensified for math and reading excellence, annual testing, higher expectations with more accountability, and the necessity to have effective teachers in core academic subjects in every classroom (U.S. Department of Education, No Child Left Behind: Building on Results, 2007). These demands align with the United States Department of Education (USED) concerning the need for greater emphasis on the mathematical achievement of students.

Literature Review

In the past, the traditional, self-contained classroom structure has been considered the basic norm arrangement for many school systems. Each elementary teacher taught everything to the same group of students for an entire academic year. One of the earliest plans to strengthen the traditional classroom was to provide specialist teachers to teach the physical education, art, and music classes (Heathers, 1960). The only absence of the core teacher might have been for the specialty classes, lunch, recess, or particular classes for remediation and enrichment. The traditional, self-contained classrooms were organized in this manner due to the idea of educating all aspects of the young child, often referenced as the 'whole child' (Ackerlund, 1959; Anderson, 1962; Bahner, 1965; Bezeau, 2007; Bowser, 1984; Canady & Rettig, 2008; Garcia, 2007; Heathers, 1960).

In contrast to the traditional organizational structure, the departmentalized structure is most often used in research to describe classrooms in which students experience more than one teacher for core academic subjects. This familiar structure is normally found at the middle and high school levels, but in some incidences, this structure is also found at the elementary level.

This type of organization is a modified version of departmentalized classes where only two or three teachers share the teaching responsibilities within a given day to two or three groups of students. This arrangement varies among schools but allows teachers the opportunity to teach in their area of personal strength and further provides effective planning time with fewer subject preparations(Rudestam, 2007).

Georgia's new GPS is curriculum is measured using the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. This test meets the requirements of the NCLB regulations regarding student assessment. The new standards provide a more rigorous and performance-based curriculum needed to meet ...