TCAP test scores released: Hale says school system doing a pretty good job

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

HALE

TCAP achievement scores are in and Warren County students have, for the most part, scored as well or better than 50 percent of students nationally.

“What we saw is basically a good set of scores,” said Director of Schools Dr. Jerry Hale. “Obviously we would like to do better and there’s always room for improvement, but whenever a system is at or above the 50th percentile they’re doing a pretty good job.”

The achievement tests are part of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program. They are given annually to Tennessee students in grades three through eight. The students are tested in five subject areas: reading, vocabulary, math, science and social studies.

Each score represents a percentile ranking. A score of 50, for example, means that the student or grade in question scored as well of better than 50 percent of students nationally.

The average scores of local students did not stray very far in either direction from the 50th percentile mark. One exception to this was the math composite score of county third-, fourth- and fifth-graders. All three of these groups’ average scores were 64.

While scores such as these are encouraging to school officials, the scores in such subjects areas as social studies and science show them areas where improvement is needed. County seventh-graders, for example, averaged a science score of 44 while the average social studies score of county fifth-graders is 46.

School officials pointed out, however, the state social studies and science curriculums are not aligned to national standards, as the other subject areas are, which no doubt is partly responsible for the lower scores in those areas.

In addition to system-wide and individual school results, the state Department of Education also released TCAP results in such sub-categories as gender, socio-economic status and race. Of these, the biggest local differences in scores came in the race category.

In many grades and subject areas blacks scored between 15 and 20 percentage points lower than their white counterparts. In some cases, the difference is closer to 30 points. In the fifth grade language subject area, for example, black students scored exactly 30 points below white students and 10 points below Hispanic students.

According to Director of Instruction Bobby Cox, the school system has already begun a needs assessment to determine what is required to improve test scores. Cox said once the needs are determined, practices will be put in place which will hopefully better educate every child, thereby raising the system’s standardized test scores.

“It will have to be a delicate balance,” he said. “We’re way above the national average in some areas and below in others. We need to find a way to improve in the areas where we’re below without losing the gains we’ve made.”

The average system wide scores, as well as the average scores of individual county schools, can be seen on the accompanying graphs. These scores, in addition to other local sub-category scores, can also be accessed at www.state.tn.us/education.