B

Hamblen County Schools’ Superintendent Arnold Bunch said improvement is the goal after the district’s 2022-23 Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) scores released by the Tennessee Department of Education on Tuesday.

District-level TCAP results are essential to providing a snapshot into each of Tennessee’s school communities.

During the 2022-23 school year, students took state TCAP assessments in general education subject areas to collect valuable data and inform strategic decision-making on how to best support the success of all students.

Overall, the 2022-23 TCAP student participation rate increased from last year, with 92 districts achieving a 99% participation rate and 29 districts achieving 100% participation rates.

There are four categories of results: below expectations, approaching expectations, meets expectations and exceeds expectations

The one-year success rate represents the percentage of students in grades 3-5 whose score met expectations or exceeded expectations on math and ELA state assessments.

The Hamblen County Schools’ overall success rates scores are for grades 3-5 a score of 38.9%, grades 6-8 a score of 30.7% and for grades 9-12 a score of 28.9%.

The Achievement score, ranging from 0 to 4, represents student performance on meeting or exceeding grade-level expectations (success rate) on state math and ELA assessments. Four is the highest rating.

A higher score means higher performance by having higher success rates relative to others in the state or demonstrating significant growth relative to prior performance.

The Hamblen County Schools’ achievement scores follow: grades 3-5 a score of 2, grades 6-8 a score of 1 and for grades 9-12 a score of 2.

Bunch explained his initial thoughts when viewing the scores. He said that although the scores have shown improvement there is still more room to grow.

“I am overall pleased with our results,” Bunch said. “We are not satisfied and I think it shows what we are striving for which is continuous steady improvement.

“Overall on our TCAP scores for the last school year we got results for 31 areas, 22 of those areas improved from the previous school year and if we compare that to the 2021 (going back 2 years) 26 areas have improved.”

Bunch broke down the scores and how the district improved when compared to prior years’ test scores.

“At the elementary level we got scores in 11 areas and compared to last year, 9 of those improved. For middle school we got scored in 13 areas and compared to last year we scored higher in 9 of those categories. When you look at the high school compared to last year, we scored better in 4 of the 7 areas with one being exactly the same,” Bunch said. “When we look back two years, the number of areas of improvement just go up. Elementary is 10 of 11, middle school is 10 of 13 and high school is 6 of 7.”

He explained that when looking at the scores, parents and guardians need to be aware that the district tests students on more areas than the state does.

“Another part is what parents and guardians will get out of this is if they dig into this and look at the areas it will show our comparisons to the state,” Bunch said. “For the state they don’t measure a few things that we test for. We test our second graders for ELA and Math. That test is not mandated so the test doesn’t give us an average score in that area.

“So there are 28 areas that we compare ourselves to the state with 14 of those we scored above the state average.”

Although improvement is seen when examining the scores. Bunch said the district is prepared to continue to work harder to provide students with a high quality education.

“I would love to see every score above the state average and I would love to see every one of the 31 areas we score go up, but I think this shows that we are on a continuous steady improvement path,” Bunch said. “It reinforces the statement that we can close the learning gap because of our great teachers, administrators and faculty. I think these scores show that our teachers and faculty can do that and I am really proud of the hard work they have put in this last year.

“We will analyze the data and collaborate across the district to take the best practice and what’s really work and promulgate that to all of our schools so everybody can get better.

“That teamwork is what’s really going to be key because we know the education of all of our students is really important. We remain committed to providing a high quality education that is responsive to each students’ unique learning needs,” he said.

TDOE also released several other scores including the county’s ready to graduate rate, graduation rate and chronic absenteeism.

The chronically out of school indicator is measured by the rate of chronic absenteeism, which is defined as the percentage of students who missed at least 10% of the instructional days that they are enrolled for during the school year. Hamblen County scored 13.9% and the state average is 20.3%.

The District Graduation Rate indicator reflects the district’s graduation rate while taking the district’s performance on preparing students to be college and career ready into account. The county scores 90.6% and the state average is 88.7%.

The Ready Graduate rate represents the percent of students who are ready for postsecondary education and/or career before high school graduation. The district scored 40.3% and the state average is 39.7%.

“I believe we are shaping Hamblen County’s future one student at a time,” Bunch said, “We are working hard to improve in all areas.”