About a fifth of students are meeting expectations in math and English in grades 3 to 8 in Shelby County Schools, according to state data released Thursday.
That’s the lowest of the state’s four urban districts, though not far behind Nashville schools at about 26 and 28 percent in English and math respectively.
The test results are significant because they will serve as a baseline for the state’s new TNReady test meant to be more rigorous and better align with national standards like the ACT and the nation’s report card. But the switch to the new test was especially disruptive for the district’s turnaround program for its lowest achieving students, which until now showed significant progress compared to other low-performing schools in the district.
The Memphis district fared better in science with 40 percent of students meeting state expectations, though guidelines on what students should know in science remained unchanged under the new test. State and local leaders had been bracing for lower scores as educators adjust curriculum to fit the new standards.
Specifically, here’s how many Shelby County Schools students in grades 3 to 8 met state expectations:
- 20.4 percent in English
- 21.7 percent in math
- 40.8 percent in science
Superintendent Dorsey Hopson said the results will be helpful as the district strategizes on ways to improve student achievement.
“As educators, our focus is always on helping our students grow academically,” he said in a statement. “This baseline year of TNReady results shows us where we have opportunities to provide additional support.”
Elementary and middle school students in the district’s turnaround initiative, the Innovation Zone, scored the same in math and English compared to other low-performing district-run schools identified by the state that aren’t in the program. The results suggest iZone leaders have as much to adjust as other schools in the district, despite the extra flow of resources per school.
Percentage of iZone elementary and middle school students in 15 schools who scored “on track or mastered,” meaning they met the state’s standards:
- 11.3 percent in English
- 14.4 percent in math
- 38 percent in science
Elementary and middle school students in 33 historically low-performing schools run by the district who scored “on track or mastered”:
- 11.1 percent in English
- 14.2 percent in math
- 29.2 percent in science
The district’s charter schools for grades 3 to 8 fared worse in English and math than district-run schools and slightly better in science. Last year, eight of the district’s 45 charter schools who took the test earlier this year were on the state’s list of bottom 10 percent scoring schools under the previous exam.
Charter elementary and middle school students who scored “on track or mastered”:
- 14.9 percent in English
- 15.2 percent in math
- 43.1 percent in science
Scores for 15 schools for various subjects were not publicly released because each achievement category had less than 5 percent or greater than 95 percent of students at the school, according to state spokeswoman Sara Gast.
The scores released Thursday reflect corrected scores for 9,400 students statewide and just over 1,000 in Shelby County Schools after the state’s testing vendor Questar ran an incorrect scan for some high school subjects.