TCAP RESULTS
Students make gains in math, science but struggle with reading.
Students in Shelby County Schools still struggle with reading on grade level, but made gains in math and science, test results from the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program released July 29 show.
Statewide, the percentage of students proficient in elementary and middle school reading dropped 1.1 percentage points. SCS outpaced the state in growth for both elementary math and science, but still lags behind the state in overall proficiency in all three tested areas. Just under a third of SCS students are reading on grade level or above, 40.4 percent are proficient or advanced in math and 47.1 percent are proficient or advanced in science.
The Achievement School District outpaced the state in growth for elementary and middle math and science. Other subjects showed steep declines, but the district also took over 23 schools this year that were all in the bottom 5 percent in the state.
Of the 17 schools in the SCS Innovation Zone, which uses additional state money for locally controlled turnaround programs, 13 showed improvement.
SHELBY COUNTY
SCS students made at least minimal gains in nine of 10 test subjects across all grade levels. The district rated a level 5, the highest score, on the scale measuring one year’s growth, for the fourth year in a row. A level 3 means students advanced one year’s worth of growth in one year’s time. A high score means more growth in the same amount of time.
Superintendent Dorsey Hopson said the results show the district knows how to improve — and under the threat of state takeover, is motivated to do so.
Hopson said they are reviewing what went wrong at the four i-Zone schools that took steps backward, noting that some of them dealt with “cultural issues” over the last year, resulting in new leadership set to take over this year.
Four schools — RaleighEgypt High, A. Maceo Walker Middle, American Way Middle and LaRose Elementary — improved enough to stave off state takeover for at least another year.
Those schools were among 21 Shelby County Schools ranked in the bottom 5 percent last year. Fifteen schools remain on the state’s priority list and could be considered for either the ASD or i-Zone programs.
“We just started holding everybody accountable,” said Bo Griffin, principal at Raleigh-Egypt High School, which gained 15.4 points in Algebra I, 28 points in Algebra II and 14.6 points in English III.
Other notable scores include a 32.1-point gain in science at Cherokee Elementary School and a 21.6-point gain in math at White Station Elementary. At Trezevant High School, less than 6 percent of students were proficient or better in Algebra II last year. That number climbed to almost a third of students this year.
The three schools within Germantown’s borders that remained with Shelby County Schools showed declines.
Germantown Elementary lost 15.1 proficiency percentage points in science, 8.7 points in reading and 1.2 points in math. Germantown Middle lost 7.4 points in science, 9 points in reading and 2.8 points in math. Germantown High lost the most ground in chemistry, with a decline of 15.7 percentage points, and 7.4 points in reading, but gained ground in Algebra I.
ACHIEVEMENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
While elementary and middle school reading proficiency dropped 1.1 percentage points, students in third through eighth grade made a 6.4-point gain in math, ahead of the state’s 4.3-point growth, and 4.7 points in science, ahead of the state’s 0.9-point growth.
Overall, however, elementary reading levels in the ASD are down 4.3 percentage points from 2012. Only 13.8 percent of elementary school students in the ASD are reading on grade level.
ASD Superintendant Chris Barbic said the challenges of teaching reading are compounded in a lowincome school.
Schools new to the ASD last year only averaged a level 1 out of 5 on growth, but Barbic said that’s due to a culture that has to be implemented in the first year. Schools in the district for two and three years averaged a level 5.
Four of the five schools the ASD runs in Frayser received a level-5 growth rating. Notable improvements came at Whitney Achievement Elementary, which saw an increase of 31.2 proficiency percentage points in math and 20.7 points in science in a single year. But the school also lost 7.4 points in reading. Georgian Hills Achievement Elementary was the only one of the five Frayser schools to improve in all areas, with 26.1 points in math, 9 points in reading and 1 point in science. Frayser Achievement Elementary saw doubledigit growth in math and science, but lost 1.3 points in reading.
The goal of the ASD is to move schools from the bottom 5 percent to the top 25 percent in five years.