State Ed Board to approve new social studies curriculum

Today, the state school board is expected to approve a new curriculum for social studies. Education officials hope the revisions will help turn-the-tide on the more than 70-percent failure rate of 6th and 7th graders last year. Over the summer, on-line public comment was taken on the proposed update. Dana Tofig with the Department of Education:

"Some people may say, 'well, the school year has begun and how can you introduce new standards when the school year has begun?'. These standards aren't so radically different. It's a lot of the same material covered in the 6th and 7th grade before...it's just a little more precise".

Training on the new material for teachers begins later this month.

Meanwhile, numbers in from summer re-testing on the math portion of the CRCT show another 19,000 rising high school freshmen passed. That improved the statewide pass-rate from 62, to 77-percent for the year.

Revised social studies curriculum set for approval

State education officials hope approval of a new social studies curriculum will turn the trend of high failure rates in future re-testing of Georgia middle schoolers.

Thursday, Georgia'school board is expected to approve a new curriculum for 6th and 7th graders. The hope is students will fare much better than last year’s failure rate of over 70-percent.

The revised curriculum was open to public comment earlier this summer. Education officials say the responses came mainly from teachers, and opinions spurred some small changes.

Dana Tofig with the Department of Education says now the training of teachers on the new social studies material will begin:

"Some people may say, ‘well, the school year has begun and how can you introduce new standards when the school year has begun?’...but, these standards aren’t so radically different. It’s a lot of the same material covered in the 6th and 7th grade before…it’s just a little more precise".

Tofig also noted just-released results of ACT scores across the nation. Georgia moved-up three spots to 41st in the country. However, over 60-percent of high school seniors still choose to take the SAT. Those results come out later this month.

New state social studies curriculum open for public comment

The Georgia Department of Education is collecting public comments on changes to the state’s social studies curriculum. This after thousands of students failed a state-mandated exam this year, the CRCT.

State schools Superintendent Kathy Cox threw out the results after discovering 70-80 percent of sixth and seventh graders failed the test.

Cox pointed to a disconnect between test questions and what was being taught, and called for a revamping of the state’s curriculum. That revised curriculum is open for on-line public comment until August 11.

A new curriculum will take effect in 2008-2009 school year; however, the CRCT in spring 2009 won’t count. They will serve as a pilot test.

Panel mulls curriculum problems

A panel of educators is wrapping up a series of meetings today aimed at tackling problems with Georgia's social studies curriculum. State schools superintendent Kathy Cox hastily formed the committee after less than 30% of 6th- and 7th-graders passes this year's state exam. Cox threw the scores out, saying the state's curriculum didn't match the questions on the test.