SCS kids improved, just more slowly

But in literacy, students outpaced their peers

Shelby County Schools students improved at a slower pace than their peers on TNReady last year, but showed substantial growth in literacy, according to data released by the state Thursday.

The district was designated a Level 2 on a scale of 1 to 5. On that scale, a 3 represents an average rate of learning in one year. A 5 represents significant growth in one year.

The district was a Level 1 in the 201617 school year.

In literacy, however, the district earned a Level 5, meaning students outpaced their peers in improving on that subject last year. That comes a year af-

Suburban Shelby County districts show mixed results. Page 8A

ter the district implemented a new reading curriculum for elementary and middle schools.

“I think the data shows that we’re seeing a good return on the investment,” SCS Superintendent Dorsey Hopson said, adding that the district will “stick to the script” on efforts to improve early literacy.

Pre-kindergarten will also continue to be a priority, he said.

The Tennessee Department of Education released school-byschool TNReady results Thursday morning, providing the last piece of the state test results puzzle in a tumultuous year for the annual assessment.

The department previously released state- and district-level data showing scores mostly flat across the state.

Achievement School District struggles

Students in the state’s turnaround program for low-performing schools continued to struggle, earning the lowest rating for how much they grew in one year.

The Achievement School District earned a Level 1 rating.

However, eight individual schools out of the 30 in the district earned the highest rating of a Level 5. One additional school earned a Level 4, and eight more schools were a Level 3.

The data shows ASD as a whole has a long way to go, but individual schools are seeing improvements.

The state created ASD seven years ago to intervene in schools that were performing in the bottom 5 percent across the state. The majority of the district’s work is in Memphis. Just two schools operate in Nashville.

For the most part, the district takes over struggling schools and outsources their operation to charter networks. The district also runs schools directly in Frayser.

The ASD is tasked with educating 12,000 of the most vulnerable children in the state, whose schools have languished with no improvement for years in high-poverty neighborhoods.

The district has a new leader this year, Sharon Griffin, who was the head of the in-house turnaround program in Shelby County Schools. The ASD did not provide comment on the district’s test results.

ASD schools earning a Level 5:

❚ Aspire School

❚ Promise Academy Spring Hill ❚ Lester Prep ❚ Neely’s Bend: A LEAD Public School Middle

❚ Wooddale School

❚ Cornerstone Denver Campus

❚ Memphis Scholars Raleigh-Egypt

❚ Kirby Middle School Middle Prep

24 SCS schools make big leaps

In SCS, 46 schools earned a Level 5, up from 16 a year ago. Additionally, 24 schools moved from a Level 1 to a Level 5.

Hopson said he was most impressed with the 24 schools that went from a Level 1 to a Level 5 in a span of one year, including Holmes Road and A. B. Hill elementary schools. Both schools had additional resources implemented last year in order to help them improve.

“Equipping great teachers with better resources certainly played a role in it,” Hopson said.

Students take state tests in subjects like English, math, science and history starting in third grade. The state has phased in TNReady, a much harder test than its predecessor. The test requires students to show their work, write essays and think comprehensively.

Science is the only subject that has not yet transitioned to TNReady, and as such, the results on those tests appear significantly higher over other subjects.

The 2017-18 results won’t count against schools, teachers or students after a slew of issues with the online testing system. Superintendents across the state have railed against the department for the testing issues, questioning the validity of the results. Some students experienced trouble logging in to the system while others had the test freeze on them halfway through. Others had trouble submitting results once they were finished.

Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer.pignolet@ commercialappeal.com.