Hamilton County Shows Improvement On Accountability Scores
posted January 13, 2005

In the final release of results from state testing last spring, Hamilton County Schools outperformed Davidson, Knox and Memphis while equaling the scores of Shelby County on the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System (TVAAS), officials said.

Hamilton County got a C on reading language and Bs on math, science and social studies. The state average is a B on science on Cs on the other three categories.

Davidson County was all Cs. Knox County had a B on math and the rest Cs. Memphis had an F on reading language, D on math and Cs on science and social studies. Shelby County had a C on science and Bs on the other three categories.

'In every release of test results from the state this year, Hamilton County has shown improvement,' said Dr. Jesse B. Register, superintendent of the school system.

'TVAAS is a way to measure what is going on in classrooms, and Hamilton County as a school system is doing well.'

The TVAAS test system takes data from the testing of last spring and recalculates it using socioeconomic and demographic data to measure whether or not students received a full year of academic growth in the year tested. It is the final release of state accountability results from the 2003-2004 school year.

It follows the release of the Criterion Referenced Test results last summer, the No Child Left Behind federal guidelines in the fall and the release of the State Report Card in November.

School Board Chairman Chip Baker said, 'Hamilton County is demonstrating the kind of accountability and results that the community has asked for and deserves.'

'For two straight years, the state has documented that our school system is progressing and that students are learning. We should celebrate the progress that is being made and congratulate all teachers, principals and students for their hard work.'

The TVAAS report includes test results for students in grades 4-8 in four subject areas - Reading/Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies.

For high schools, the TVAAS formula creates a school-system specific target for performance on Gateway exams, the ACT and the 11th Grade Writing Assessment. It then measures whether the system exceeds the target or not.

With the state average represented by a grade of C, Hamilton County Schools:
* Students in Hamilton County met or exceeded the state growth standard in every subject area in grades K-8 in 2003-2004.
* Scored a C in Reading/Language Arts and Bs in Math, Science and Social Studies.
* Had eight schools score straight As in the four subject areas tested.
* Scored above the set target in eight of the nine results reported for high school students.

'Some would have the community believe the school system is not performing, but the test results and accountability measures released by the state over the past seven months show that we are heading in the right direction and performing well,' said Dr. Register.

Dr. Register said the work done by the Benwood Schools Initiative for at-risk elementary schools and the Carnegie Initiative at the high school level is making a difference in test scores.

'There can be no question that the focus brought by the Benwood Initiative has made a dramatic difference at those nine elementary schools and showed us ways to improve all our schools,' said Dr. Register.

'The Carnegie Initiative at high schools and the work of the Public Education Foundation with that reform is making an incredible difference in our high schools.'

Both Mr. Baker and Dr. Register said the school system 'is not focused on what impact the $22 million in mandated budget reductions made in August 2004 will have on test scores next year, but focused solely on doing the best job possible with the funding that is available.'

'Our job is to educate the children we serve and present our needs to the Hamilton County Commission,' said Mr. Baker.

'Since the 2004 Report Card was based on last year's test scores, only time will tell what impact larger classrooms and other cuts will have on accountability results.'

TVAAS results are available online at www.state.tn.us/education