Education Commissioner Candice McQueen today released the school-level 2018 TNReady results as well as 2018 school and district student growth data. The TNReady scores show that nearly 700 schools – more than 40 percent of schools in Tennessee – saw improvement across the majority of their grades and subjects in 2018, and 210 of those schools saw improvement across all grades and subjects. Additionally, 88 school districts – about 60 percent – met or exceeded student growth expectations. There were 11 school districts that demonstrated the top level of growth in all tested subjects.

While TNReady results look at students’ overall achievement and include whether a student scored as on track or mastered on their spring assessment, growth scores look at how much students are growing, regardless of whether they were proficient. Taken together, these results show a fuller picture of students’ performance.

“While we know we still have room to improve, we also want to celebrate the hundreds of schools in Tennessee that showed progress this past year,” Commissioner McQueen said. “Students and teachers are making encouraging strides on both TNReady and in their overall growth, and today’s results point to bright spots across the state where students saw across-the-board success this past year on the state assessment. We want to learn from those places as we also continue to improve.”

Today’s release follows the release of state- and district-level TNReady results in July. As the department noted at the time, while most students took TNReady on paper, the department had a third-party expert conduct additional analysis to see if and/or how the online disruptions from this spring impacted the scores.

On 2018 TNReady, students showed the most improvement in English language arts for grades 3-5, and today’s school-level results show that nearly 60 percent of schools improved their achievement scores in this area. Mirroring the mixed results that were seen at the state level, in most grades and subjects around 30-50 percent of schools saw improvement in their achievement scores; for example, in high school math, about 46 percent of schools improved.

Tennessee has calculated student growth for nearly three decades, and these scores, called the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) scores, measure student growth year over year. In calculating a TVAAS score, a student’s performance is compared relative to the performance of his or her peers who have performed similarly on past assessments.

In the report, the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System scores measure student growth year over year ranging from level one to five. Five is the highest level a school system can receive. The following in the listening area got perfect level 5 scores in overall composite and literacy composite: Roane, Loudon, Rhea and Pickett County. Cumberland and Fentress County received a 3 overall and a 2 in literacy while Morgan County got a one in both categories.