B

You want the good news or the bad news first?

The good news Hamblen County’s English Language Arts TCAP scores came in over the weekend, the fastest the state of Tennessee has ever gotten the scores back to the schools.

According to Hamblen County Superintendent of Schools Arnold Bunch, Jr., there’s a lot to be proud of in those scores.

In the face of massive pressure created by a new state law designed to drive improvement in Tennessee third graders’ reading scores, Hamblen County saw significant improvement in third grade scores year over year.

In addition, Hamblen County saw massive improvement in the scores from this year’s third graders versus their performance on the second grade level of the TCAP test last year.

“There are some really good, for me, highlights here,” Bunch said. “It shows the great work that our schools have done.”

“I’m just really proud of all the effort that our teachers are putting into closing the learning gap. It shows that we’re making that progress.”

The bad news?

Roughly 59% of Hamblen County third graders – about 426 kids – fell into the Below Expectations or Approaching Expectations categories, which means they face either summer school, intense tutoring next year or being held back and repeating the third grade thanks to the new law that went into effect this year.

“We’re refining the date right now,” Bunch said. “What that means is we will go in and look at who has unique learning needs.”

There are some exceptions to the law based on the unique learning needs which could lower the total number of students affected.

When discussing the law at the first of the school year, Bunch indicated based on last years testing, the number of Hamblen County students affected could be as high as 65%.

That difference shows a 6% improvement year over year with last year’s third graders versus this years third graders.

“To me, that is very, very positive,” he said.

Bunch also said that this year’s third graders – a group that was heavily affected in key learning years by COVID – showed a significant improvement this year versus their performance in second grade.

“This same group of kids, on the TCAP last year in second grade, 27% pass rate, Now we’re now at 40.9%.” he said. “That shows you the focus that we put in with our third grade teachers, all the effort those third grade teachers and administrators and parents have put into this. That’s a 13.6% pass rate jump from last year.

“I’m very proud of our third grade teachers. Very, very proud of the hard work and dedication they put in to try and close this learning gap,” he said. “If you can get a 13.6% jump for passing with the same group of kids, that reinforces my belief that with the right effort and a little bit of time we can close the learning gap that we got during COVID. We just can’t take our foot off the pedal, we’ve got to keep pushing.”

Bunch added that it appears that Hamblen County Schools are right in line with the state average.

Stil, even though the information came earlier this year than before, there isn’t much time to reflect.

The school year ends this week. Hamblen Schools have already begun retesting students who were close to the line – both the line for a passing grade and the line between below expectations and approaching expectations.

“We have a lot of kids that were right there at the border of being above, being in the meet or exceeds category,” he said. “Even some of them in the below category are retesting to see if they can get into the approaching category.”

The difference between the bottom two categories is significant.

Students in the below expectations have to take summer school classes and commit to intense tutoring all next year or be held back. Parents of students in the approaching expectations categories can choose between summer school or intense tutoring or retention.

One concern when the law was announced was whether or not schools would have enough teachers and tutors to fulfull the obligations set forth by the state. Hamblen County is still working on getting enough tutors to meet the 3-to-1 ratio required, but there are enough teachers for the Summer Bridge Camp.

“Our teachers have rallied,” Bunch said. “We’ve built this with enough room for 420 third graders.”

Bunch said they also constructed it keeping summer vacation plans in mind. There will be several families affected who scheduled a summer vacation that would overlap with the bridge camp.

Though only 16 days of bridge camp are required, Hamblen School built its plan with 20 days – four of which are available as make-up days for students who need them. That way if a student misses a week for vacation, they can attend the make-up days and reach the 90% requirement.

“I need parents to understand that I need the attendance,” Bunch said.

The state law – which is in its first year – remains something of a moving target. The State Board of Education is meeting this week to define what lawmakers meant with the included term “adequate progress” in the law.

And while it might have been better to have the term defined prior to releasing the results, Bunch is pleased with other adjustments the board has made, including changing explanations in the Frequently Asked Questions about the law.

‘What we’ve created is an opportunity to promote all students, if parents will cooperate with summer school,” he said. “I’m much more comfortable now, than I was earlier in the year. There are avenues there to get all of our students promoted.”

Bunch said school officials will look at this year’s second graders’ TCAP scores to identify students who are in the below or approaching categories to prepare to work to bring them up to grade level as well.

“We’re going to continue to try and close this learning gap so when the kids come out of third grade, we don’t face this same situation,” he said. “We’re going to continue to push that.”

In the build up to the bill, educators across the state were concerned about the retention portion of the law. There is significant data that retention does not help a struggling student close the learning gap.

Instead, the state has created a pathway through summer school and the tutoring sessions – two times a week – to promote the student to fourth grade and work to bring them up to speed.

“You’re going to do intense tutoring,” Bunch said. “You can get them in the fourth grade and keep pushing them for the year. We can close the learning gap where they can read and learn and get back up to grade level.”

Ultimately, Bunch said he’s proud of the work educators and students have done.

“A 13.6% increase, shows that we’re making that progress.”