Education Edition - 1736 Magazine, Fall 2019

Grandparents mingle with students during Grandparents Day at Heritage Academy. [MICHAEL HOLAHAN/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE]
IN THE CLASSROOM
There are two main standardized testing methods to
chart primary-education student achievement: criterion-referenced
tests, such as the Criterion-Referenced
Competency Tests, or CRCT, that the state of Georgia
uses; and norm-referenced tests, such as the Iowa Tests
of Basic Skills test, which is used by Heritage Academy.
Criterion tests compare a student’s knowledge or
skills against a state’s predetermined standard or
performance goal. Norm-referenced tests essentially
compare a student’s performance against a national
average of test takers at the same age or grade level.
In Georgia, the CRCT assesses the standards of
students in grades 1-8 as outlined in the Common Core
Georgia Performance Standards curriculum, which state
teachers are required to teach. The pressure to meet
standards made headlines in 2011 when an investigation
of the Atlanta Public Schools district linked 178 teachers
and 38 principals to a cheating scandal involving the
falsification of test results.
Although Heritage Academy’s academic performance
is above average – it’s 2018 annual report shows a 71%
third-grade reading proficiency score, compared to the
35% national average – Tucciarone said the school does
not have a “testing culture.”
“That allows us to have a lot of flexibility to investing
in other ways that cognitive abilities are developed
in children,” she said. “Children need so much more
than being able to pass a test. They need love. They need
affirmation. They need play. They need art. They need
music. They need PE.
“Why is there a growing backlash against the testing
culture?” she said. “Because it hasn’t worked, has
it? The emphasis on testing has not really moved the
needle.”
Among the more unusual programs at the school is a
20-minute-per-day “NeuroNet” neuromotor integration
program for K-2 students, a screen-based program
in which children follow a series of directional prompts
using their hands and feet to strengthen the neural connections
and cognitive capacities between the right and
left hemispheres of their brains.
“Now why do we see a need for this? Because children
are playing less. They are outside less,” Tucciarone said.
And, like most area schools, Heritage Academy has
instituted a cyber-education initiative. But its program, a
3-year, 300-hour curriculum called Cyber Aces, focuses
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