Local students show smarts on Gateway exams: Better state average by as much as 26 percentage points
Warren County students bested the state average in nearly all categories tested on the newly instituted Gateway exams, according to data recently released by the state Department of Education.
“We were only a partial point lower than the state average in a few categories. In all others we were higher, and in some cases significantly higher, than that state average,” said Dianna Zadeh, the school system’s Director of Testing, ESOL and Equity.
Taken in May by students state wide, the Gateway exams are part of a General Assembly initiative to raise the academic bar and increase accountability within Tennessee schools. Beginning with last year’s freshman class, passing the exams in three core subjects – algebra, biology and English II – is required to graduate with a regular education diploma.
Locally, 469 students took the algebra I exam, with 414, or 88.3 percent, achieving passing scores. The state average in this category is 77.4 percent passing.
Of the 428 local students taking the biology exam, 413, or 96.5 percent, passed. The state average is 94.1 percent passing.
“We are very proud of these scores,” said Zadeh. “They are an excellent example of what can be achieved when administrators, teachers and students all work together The base line has now been set and we will work hard to achieve the same or higher results in years to come.”
The English II Gateway exam will not be given until next May as it tests a sophomore course.
The state also released Gateway exam results compiled and compared by gender, race and socio-economic status.
Warren County males bested the state male average by close to 9 percentage points on the algebra exam and almost 4 points on the biology exam. County females bested the state female average by close to 3 points on the algebra exam and almost 1 point on the biology exam.
Locally, Warren County females outscored males by 3.5 points on the algebra exam while county males outscored females by just over 2 points on the biology exam.
County whites scored right at, or slightly higher, than the state-wide average on both exams. Comparisons between local blacks and Hispanics and their respective state averages were not available due to the insufficient number of those students in the school system.
The biggest difference between the county and state passing averages came in the low socio-economic status category for algebra. Local students in this group scored almost 26 percentage points higher than the state average.
Warren County’s special education students also scored noticeably higher than the state special education average. On the algebra exam, they beat the state average by 11.5 points and on the biology exam they scored 6.5 points higher than the average.